


Always Together, Day After Day

by Maxojir



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Eventual Romance, F/M, Friendship/Love, Gen, Platonic Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:27:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 30,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24651553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maxojir/pseuds/Maxojir
Summary: Judy is reinstated after foiling Bellwether's conspiracy, and Nick finally sets on a new life track to become her partner at the ZPD. And as time rolls by day after day, everyone can't avoid noticing, themselves included, that they're always together. They were never going to only be friends, yet they were also never going to be "lovers" as the phrase is used . . . but they were going to be together.
Relationships: Fangmeyer/Wolford (Zootopia), Judy Hopps & Nick Wilde, Judy Hopps/Nick Wilde
Comments: 33
Kudos: 117





	1. Good NIGHT

**Author's Note:**

> The deleted scene from the movie where both Judy's parents & Nick were at apartment is canon for this.  
> Saw too many pieces of ideas I had for how things would go for them scattered across so many different fanfics and different authors, but nothing ever really was a perfect fit, for me that is. So I finally broke down and began writing my own.

Chapter 1 : Good NIGHT

Nick held open the main door of Judy’s apartment complex as she hobbled through the entryway on her newly acquired crutches. The cut she’d gotten at the museum while they were running from Bellewether wasn’t a severe injury, but it was also no mere surface scrape either. It was just bad enough that the doctor she’d seen at the hospital recommended she avoid walking on it for a few days, preferably a week. And as annoying as Nick’s jokes about how difficult that would likely be for her, they weren’t exactly untrue. 

Judy made her way to base of the stairs while Nick closed the main door behind them. Just as she made it to the stairs, however, she felt a pair paws slip under her arms and lift her up.

“Come on Carrots,” Nick said, revealing himself to be the gravity-defying force as they began climbing, “you didn’t actually think I was gonna let you climb all the way up there did you?”

Judy couldn’t see his face, but she didn’t need to know he has smirking. In much the same way as he knew she bore that hybrid annoyed-yet-amused expression, which she did, of course.

“Nick,” she complained after a sigh, “I’m only on the third floor. It’s not that far.”

“Heroes don’t climb stairs with bum legs, Fluff.” He said.

She could only let her eyes roll as they passed the second floor, and she knew he was still grinning. “You know,” she said, “you let me crutch my own way all the way down the sidewalk till we got here.”

She couldn’t tell which direction, but her ears were able to pick up his tilting of his head just as he replied.

“And you know, for a bunny that was all about obeying and enforcing the rules from day one,” Nick couldn’t miss the teasing opportunity, “you sure seem quick to hop your own way out of them; ditching your apartment without cancelling your lease, all those rules about civilians involving themselves in police investigations, and now you even wanna disregard the doctor’s orders too?”

He gave it a second, allowing the bunny he was carrying a second or two to cringe at the reminder before he finished what he meant to say. “Besides, I wasn’t gonna publicly humiliate you.”

“Yeeeah,” her sarcastic response came immediately, “cause sparing me public humiliation is definitely something _you’re_ known for.”

__Nick’s grin would have switched to an embarrassed smile . . . if he were any other mammal. But given it was him, it switched to one of accomplishment instead._ _

__They reached the top of the second flight of stairs, where the fox finally set her back down and where she resumed leading their way._ _

__“Judy?” They both looked ahead at the sudden voice of her landlord, standing halfway down the third floor hall. “I was just coming to try and find you again.” The armadillo said. “I came looking for you a few days ago when you missed rent but you weren’t there.”_ _

__“Oh!” Judy winced at the mentioning of it. “Um, yeah I’m so sorry ma’am. I promise I wasn’t trying to skip on it. I’ve just . . . had too much going for the last week for me to handle. I can get it to you tonight—”_ _

__“The next due date is fine dear, as long as it’s the full amount.” The landlord’s answer came as a surprise to both the bunny and the fox. “I was worried that you may’ve simply gone on abandon but I wasn’t sure. I did key into your unit after a few days and saw it looked empty, but I didn’t recall you bringing all that much with you when you moved in so I still wasn’t sure.” She explained, and then pointed to Judy’s leg. “But obviously I can see you’ve had more than enough of one matter or another going on, and I’m certainly not going demand money from a mammal that I assume is just returning from the hospital.”_ _

__Judy’s eyes had widened by quite a bit, and even Nick’s thorough surprise was visible on his face._ _

__“Are you sure?” Judy asked._ _

“Of course young rabbit. It’s my building, and the law only regulates how _unkindly_ I can treat my tenants dear, not how kindly I can choose to.” 

____Judy’s ears fell partway down as hear eyes widened even further with the second round of assurance. She’d never really spoken to the armadillo in the three months she’d had the unit, so it wasn’t really as if she had a base of character to go off of. But still, this was a little bit beyond surprising. She saw even Nick’s eyes were open wide when she glanced over to him for a second._ _ _ _

____“Uh, thanks then, really.” Judy spoke again. “Really, I promise I’ll get it to you as soon as I can.” She still insisted._ _ _ _

____“Whenever between now and the next is convenient for you dear. Do be careful with that leg, and have a good night.” The landlord said as she walked past them towards the stairwell. She lifted her hand in a single wave just before disappearing around the corner at the end of the hall._ _ _ _

____Nick and Judy both turned their heads to each other in unison, relief and happiness beginning to take over Judy’s expression, while Nick still bore a face of actual shock._ _ _ _

____“Well,” he remarked as his eyes returned to their normal degree of opening, “guess that whole effect you have of turning other mammals into goody-goodies doesn’t only work on just me then?” He ended back on his default smile._ _ _ _

____Judy smirked for a second at the . . . complimenting insult or whatever it was meant to be. “Oh come on Nick.” She said, hobbling down the hall again towards her own door. “I’m pretty sure she was already a nice armadillo who’d do that for anyone.”_ _ _ _

____“I don’t know, Carrots.” Nick replied as they reached Judy’s door. “I’ve lived in quite a few places myself and I don’t think I’ve ever had any landlords be that forgiving.”_ _ _ _

____Judy turned back to him whilst unlocking and pushing her door open. “Maybe that’s just because you never gave them a renter’s discount on your pawpsicles.” It was a dumb joke to throw, but it was the only one that had sprung into her mind quick enough and she couldn’t resist._ _ _ _

____Nick’s response was a mere amused shrug as Judy finally stepped into her tiny apartment unit and he followed right behind. True to the armadillo’s word, there was nothing but the provided furnishings inside._ _ _ _

____“Yup.” Nick remarked. “This is definitely an empty shoebox.”_ _ _ _

____“Ha ha.” Judy mocked a laugh in return. “We both know everything I had is back in the burrow with my parents . . . including my phone charger.” She only then realized as she went to place her phone on the desk to charge like she normally would have._ _ _ _

____Whilst she had it out, she went ahead and checked it. There was the low battery warning waiting for her, sure enough, though still at ten percent at least. And beneath that notification was an endless list of missed calls from mom and dad._ _ _ _

____She sighed, sitting down in her room’s lone chair and setting the crutches up against the desk. “I can’t believe I forgot I had everything on silent since this morning.” She said._ _ _ _

____“Hey I wouldn’t act like that’s a bad thing.” Nick said. “Not having any sudden ringtones going off definitely let us be sneakier than the last time.”_ _ _ _

____Judy laughed aloud, though she cringed inside from that particular reminder. It defi—“Oh cheese and crackers the truck!” Judy’s ears fell against the back of her head, right in sync with her own palm coming up to meet her face._ _ _ _

____“Hm?” Nick merely emitted a simple sound._ _ _ _

____“The truck we drove in,” she explained, releasing her face from her hand, “that’s my parents’ truck. When I found about the night howlers this morning I just shouted for the keys and drove off with it without saying another word or telling anyone anything.”_ _ _ _

____“Like when and _if_ you were gonna bring it back?” Nick asked, slightly raising an eyebrow in tune with his wry smirk.___ _

______Judy let out an exacerbated sigh as she twisted in the chair to actually face the desk. And, of course, the moment she did she let her head slow-fall face first onto it._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Aw come on Carrots,” Nick said, “just tell them you had to _commandeer_ it for urgent police business.” ___ _ _ _

________She lifted her head back up to answer. “I’m not worried about why I took the truck. I’m worried about the fact that I left my parents without their truck.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Eh,” Nick shrugged and waved it off with a single paw, “I’m sure they were able to get plenty of help and rides from the other five-hundred million bunnies in Bunnyburrow.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Ha ha Nick,” Judy let the sudden stress that had overcome her face fade out back into a smile of her own, “I’ll have you know, there are only eighty-nine million bunnies in Bunnyburrow.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Nick gasped, brining both paws up underneath his cheeks. “I’m so sorry.” He said, faking sincerity and way over-selling it. “How dare I? _Only_ eighty-nine million.”___ _ _ _ _ _

__________Judy had to laugh, though she tried her best to hold it back, so in the end it came out as an adorable snickering. Or at least it was from Nick’s point of view._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________Out of nowhere Judy’s phone screen lit up and her ringtone filled the room, drawing both of their gazes over to it._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Knew that was coming.” She remarked._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Hey at least we don’t have to flush ourselves down a toilet this time.” Nick reminded, bringing about a shiver and a gag from the bunny in response._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________Judy took a single, relaxing breath in and out before she inevitably tapped the green answer icon on the phone screen._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Hi mom, hi dad!” She said as her parents faces appeared on the screen._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Judy!” Her mom was first._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Oh thank cottontails you’re alright!” Her dad spoke right up after. “We’ve been trying to call you all day, twice every half hour after we saw the news.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________Her mother nodded while her dad spoke, and then jumped right back in. “We saw your mayor got arrested again, and the news said so many things like there was a train that exploded and they mentioned your name but they never had any details!”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“It’s ok you guys.” Judy promised, with a sincere smile. “I’m fine.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Oh thank heavens!” Her mom nearly shouted, with her dad rapidly nodding his head beside her._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________It was then that Nick suddenly chimed in. “I’d say a bit more than fine, Carrots.” He said, coming over into the phone camera’s view. “You guys know your daughter single-handedly saved the entire city of Zootopia, again?” He posed the rhetorical question with his casual grin._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Again? Judy?” Her mom asked, while her dad was a bit distracted by Nick’s presence on the screen._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“It wasn’t single-handedly.” Judy answered, rolling her eyes at the fox next to her. “I didn’t do it alone. But . . . uh, yeah we kinda stopped the whole criminal operation that was going on, again.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Judy saved Zootopia again?” The voices of several of her younger siblings were just being picked up by her parents’ phone._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Did she save the whole city?”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“I thought she wasn’t police anymore?”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Is she a hero now?”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Hero Judy!”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Kids, kids,” her mom broke back in, “hush and settle down kids, you can talk to Judy when it’s not mommy and daddy’s turn.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“That only sounds like a handful of little bunnies.” Nick said to Judy. “I thought you said you had hundreds of siblings?” The question may have been genuine, but the self-amused grin was still there._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“They’re not all eternally circling around my parents at all times.” Judy answered, with a matching grin of her own._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Is that the fox you had with you when we were there?” Her dad’s voice suddenly returned._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Yeees,” she answered, with a noticeable bit of annoyance suddenly her voice, “But I told that time back then, he has a name.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Oh, yes, I remember.” Her mom suddenly returned into the camera frame, back from shooing the children away. “It was Rick?” She asked._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Nick.” Judy clarified._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Oh, ah, Nick, yes.” Her dad stuttered at first. “. . . you brought him into you home again?” He asked._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________Irritance quite visibly came over Judy’s face then, plain for the facecam to see._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Stu!” Her mother elbowed her dad, forcing him to cease._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

___________“Anyways,”_ Judy changed the subject herself while the opportunity was there, “I needed to talk to you guys about the truck.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Oh! Did something happen to it?” Her mother asked._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“No no, it’s fine, don’t worry.” Judy told them. “First off I’m sorry for just asking for the keys and driving it off without even saying anything.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Nah don’t you worry bout that, Jude.” Her dad shook his head, and her mother followed up._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“With how eager and jumpy you suddenly were, we knew it was definitely something important.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Thanks, but . . .” Judy began to bring up the actual issue, looking at her crutches that laid just out of camera view, “I uh, can’t exactly drive it back to you.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Hm?” From her mother._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Huh? How come?” From her dad._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Because of the enormous case she just solved, remember?” Nick suddenly provided answer before Judy did, to her surprise, having noticed her eyes darting over to the crutches and picked up on what was going through her mind. “She’s gonna be stuck at a safe desk doing so much paperwork and filling out reports and follow-up reports—”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Oh thank goodness!” Her parents both practically said together at Nick’s suggestion that Judy would be _“stuck a safe desk”. _____ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________Judy’s eyeroll at her parents’ reaction didn’t go unnoticed._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________“Um, I mean bummer you’re gonna have to be writing up all that stuff.” Her dad course-corrected himself. “But, uh, that’s no biggee. Your mom and I can ride the train out there again and take the truck back ourselves.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________Her mom nodded, and added on. “And, we can bring a box or two, or three of your stuff with us since . . .” She stopped to exchange a knowing glance with her husband. “I guess this means you’re going to be staying in Zootopia after all then?”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________“Yeah.” Judy answered, with a sympathetic smile. “I love you guys, but, I don’t think I’ll be coming back to the farm now.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________“Eh,” her dad let his shoulders slump, although he still smiled back at her, “yeah we kinda figured.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________“It was so nice to have you home for while, Judy,” her mom said, “but we could both tell your heart and soul weren’t here in the burrow anymore.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________Nick watched Judy’s smile grow, or rather watched it change. Hearing her parents’ actual acceptance of where she was meant to be brought about what was probably the second most heartfelt expression of joy he’d ever seen on his friend’s face, only overshadowed by the tearful one she’d had when he’d forgiven her early that morning._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________“Don’t you worry about the truck none, we’ll come out there and get it.” Her assured her. “You just set your mind to filling out those forms at that nice safe desk.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________Judy’s heartfelt smile remained, even as she narrowed her eyebrows at the safe desk comment._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________“What your dad means, is,” her mom took over, “we love you sweetie, and we’ll see you . . . tomorrow?” She turned her last word to a question for Stu, who raised a finger to tap his chin for a second._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________“Yeah,” he said, “yeah we just have to make sure we get the irrigating done early then we can catch the afternoon train and be there around five.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________“Sounds great guys, I’ll see you then.” Judy said._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________Her mother was first. “Ok then, bye Judy, we’ll see you tomorrow.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________“Yeah . . . hey, Jude?” Her dad suddenly asked._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________“Hm?” Judy waited._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________“You know you never answered when I asked that first time back then.” He paused, looking beside his daughter at the fox standing next to her seat. “He’s not your boyfriend, right?”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________“BYE dad, love you both.” Judy dismissed the whole thing with a sigh and hung up._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________Slowly, with some amount of soft dread, she looked over in Nick’s direction, knowing some version of what was waiting._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________The fox stood waiting for his friend’s gaze to return to him, single eyebrow raised a smarmy smirk giving away the fact that he was struggling to hold back. Whether it would have a joke, a pun, a witty remark, or a few dozen of all of them, Judy was legitimately shocked he was holding himself back. Still, she wasn’t going to chance it._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________“Don’t even.” She warned him._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________Nick’s eyebrow fell back in place, but his smirk remained. He simply raised up his hands and somewhat bowed his head while taking a step back._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________“Hey, don’t be so quick assume now.” he attempted to convince her. “I actually wasn’t going to say anything.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________Now it was Judy who raised an eyebrow, as her hands rested with her knuckles against her hips._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________“Oh come, Carrots,” Nick said, “if you keep up that look you’re make me think you don’t trust me.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________Judy sighed, and relented. She didn’t have a choice, not with him. The thought had never been allowed form properly in her mind until that point, given all that they’d been involved in from one moment to the next during the few days they had actually spent together. But . . . Nick really was an enjoyable kind of insufferable._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________“Shouldn’t you be heading off?” She asked. “Chief Bogo wants you to be there to record an official statement tomorrow too, and something tells me you’re not that quickest mammal when it comes to waking up in the morning.” She made sure to end it with a verbal jab._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________Bogo had gotten a quick, decent enough explanation from them before sending them off to the hospital for the sake of Judy’s leg. They’d handed him the recorder pen, which contained enough from Bellwether’s own mouth to run with, and the nighthowler serum of course. But, as procedural requirements were, they still needed to either give or fill out official, legal statements. Plus Judy had her own reason for wanting to bring Nick to Precinct One headquarters tomorrow. There was another form to acquire . . . and a question to be asked, for a second time._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________“Really?” Nick corrected her. “I think someone might’ve forgotten, Fluff, that first day, the day I hustled you for a jumbo pop? It was no later than nine, nine-thirty in the morning tops when we walked out of that ice cream shop.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________This time, the fox’s smugness was extra aggravating, because she realized he was right. Judy may not have remembered the exact time she’d first spotted Nick and Finnick that day three months ago, but Nick was right. It had definitely been mid-morning at the latest._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________“This fox,” Nick went on, pointing a claw to himself, “has absolutely zero difficulty waking up early.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“Oh,” Judy asked, “does _this fox_ have any evidence to back up his claims?” 

____________“As a matter of fact I do, or I will, tomorrow.” Nick answered her, leaning forward to lower his head to her level. “I’ll be here, waiting outside to escort my bum-legged bunny friend to the police station, first thing in the morning.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________“Uh-huh.” Judy had allow herself a smug expression of her own at what she instinctively went to assume was an absurd declaration on, even despite the nagging feeling she was going to be proven wrong._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________“You’ll see.” Nick confidently held his ground._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________Judy could feel the inevitable reality of tomorrow already creeping up on her. Even after only this short a time, she knew she should’ve learned by now that no matter how unbelievable they seemed, or how smugly he made them, Nick actually didn’t make claims that he couldn’t back up. Well, except for his declaration the first day they met that she’d never be a real cop. But, his being right or wrong about that had been dependent upon her abilities, not his._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________“I’ll believe it when I see it.” She still said anyways._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________“I’m sure you will.” Nick said without any loss of confidence as he finally walked over to the door._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________Judy hopped after him on her good leg, waiting to lock her door for the night after he’d left._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________“I’ll see you tomorrow then.” She said as he opened the door to leave, finally switching back to regular sincerity of voice._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________“See you tomorrow, Carrots.” Nick let his perpetual smirk fall into a softer, genuine smile. “First thing in the morning.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________Judy kept her own smile up even as Nick turned and stepped out. She watched his tail follow him out the door, waiting for it to be clear before she moved to push the door closed. Right as she began to shut the door, however, Nick suddenly popped his head back in. Little did she know, he was unable to resist making his own mocking replay of the final moment on the phone with her parents earlier._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________“Just so we’re clear,” he asked, wry fox grin and all, “I’m not your boyfriend am I?”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________With all the strength her good leg could muster Judy heaved her entire, albeit measly weight against her side of the door._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________“Good NIGHT, Nick!” She said, after she felt the door finally close behind her._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________“Night, Judy.” Nick wished her the same, the words tumbling out of the end of a laugh._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Judy listened to the sound of his footsteps as he walked away. In the apparent absence of her neighbors it was actually quiet enough in the complex that she could hear the faint clattering sounds of Nick’s claws on the hallway floor outside, and even the first few of his steps down the stairs afterward. She had actually wondered more than once before if there really were any other tenants in the building besides Bucky and Pronk next door, since she certainly never _heard_ anyone else. But, she supposed it was more likely her two neighbors simply had a monopoly on obnoxious noise in the building. 

______________Her mind inevitably went back to Nick as she locked her door and started one-legged hopping her way over to her bed._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_“Unbelievable.”_ She thought. Her orange friend really couldn’t help himself, could he?

Still, she found herself unable to wipe away her own little smirk of amusement, even as she finally climbed into bed.


	2. Words of all Kinds

Judy awoke to nothing. Her alarm hadn’t sounded off, since her clock wasn’t even there. Nor had her phone’s alarm gone off, though she wasn’t expecting it to anyways. She’d known it would almost certainly die sometime during the night, which it obviously had. If she hadn’t taken the call from her parents when Nick brought her back last night, her phone may have had just enough battery left to make it to the morning, but leaving her parents unanswered after what had happened wasn’t an option.

So now, here she was, awake, and with the faint bit of morning light as her only indicator of time. It looked like the sun had just finished rising, but with most of its light for the moment still blocked by buildings. It was just enough to figure that it was probably around or just after seven in the morning. More than an hour later than she would normally get up, but it wasn’t as if she was back on the job yet. Chief Bogo had told her and Nick outside the museum the afternoon prior that he expected to see them there at eight-thirty, and exactly eight-thirty, because he only had a half-hour window between then and nine before much of the real work of dealing with everything that had transpired began.

As she sat up and shifted herself to let her feet hang off the side of the bed, she felt the tight, inward-tugging pain on her injured leg again. She winced a little, mainly because he hadn’t seen it coming. In the aftermath of a surprisingly decent sleep, the memory of her injury had eluded her for her first few moments of consciousness. But not anymore, obviously. It was definitely less severe pain than yesterday when she’d received it, probably lessened by a quarter or maybe a third. It was still enough to dampen the desire and the instinct to use the leg.

Still, she slipped herself out of bed, making sure her feet came onto the floor gently and being mindful to keep her wait on her good leg. She took a single-legged hop across the floor to where her crutches leaned against the desk. Only then did the realization suddenly strike her; Nick had helped her avoid her parents finding out she was injured last night, but they were still going to see her themselves later today. And, when they saw her on crutches they would freak out. 

Her head fell forward so that her face dropped into her palm. Even if she had been tired last night, she still couldn’t believe that thought never crossed her mind at the time. 

To no _real_ surprise, Judy could suddenly hear the memory of her recording on that carrot pen.

“Yup, dumb bunny.” She said to herself, albeit with the faintest smile.

“Hear that?” Bucky and Pronk’s voices suddenly came through their neighboring wall.

“She’s awake.”

“Hey rabbit! I think that’s your fox out there.”

“I’m telling you it’s not the same one.”

“Yes it is!”

“No it’s not!” The two of them carried on back and forth, as they always did in some way. 

Meanwhile what they had said drove Judy to take hold of her crutches and hobble over to the window. When she looked out, down on the sidewalk below leaning with his back against a streetlamp, was Nick. Judy was shocked, although she knew very well that she shouldn’t have been. She had doubted his ability to wake up in the morning, yet there he was outside, fiddling around on his phone. He did yawn within just the few seconds Judy had been looking however, and from what she could see his eyes didn’t exactly look all the way open. But still, he was there.

“Just ask her and have her settle it!” Her two neighbor’s voices began tuning back in.

“Hey! Is that your fox or not?” One of them asked through the wall.

“He has an actual name, you guys.” She answered back. “And he’s not _my_ fox. I’m not his keeper.”

“I thought he was your boyfriend?” One of them asked.

Prickling chills crawled over Judy’s skin beneath her fur for second, before she just rolled her eyes at the second pair of mammals to have jumped to that assumption.

She didn’t want to leave Nick out there waiting, and it wasn’t as if she had anything to do to get ready before she left, given she had nothing with her. Even though it was dead, she still grabbed her phone off of the desk as she crutched her way over to the door. Hopefully someone at the ZDP had a matching charger and would let her use it while they spoke with Bogo. 

Judy hobbled her way down the stairs quickly enough and emerged from the apartment complex to find Nick right where she’d last seen him, still leaning against the nearest streetlamp.

“Well,” he spoke up the moment he noticed her, but had to pause after his first word to yawn again and stretch one of his arms up, “look who’s finally awake.”

“And just what’s that supposed to mean?” She asked, making her way over to where he stood.

“Hrmm,” Nick let out a muffled sound as he stretched out his other arm to wake himself up further, “it means, that I’ve been patiently waiting out here for the last twenty minutes.” He said, playing it up.

“ _That long_ , huh?” She mocked back.

Nick waited for a second, and then let a regular, plain smile break across his face. “Morning to you too, Carrots.” He said, reaching out with a paw to briefly ruffle the fur between Judy’s ears while she tried to swat him away.

Judy took a moment to straighten her fur back into place, while Nick casually began a slow, sauntering walk in the direction they were going.

“You know Bunnys’ consider it exceptionally rude to pat them on the head, Nick.” She said, half asking and half telling.

“Oh I know.” He simply said, looking back with all-too-amused smirk while he kept on walking.

She couldn’t believe it. She should have, and she knew she should have, but he’d still made her not somehow.

“Ugh!” She finally started following, practically galloping on her crutches at first to catch up. “You know, I’ll let that one slide, but don’t you think maybe I should be leading the way?” She asked.

“What?” Nick asked in return. “You don’t think I know how to get to the police station?”

“Well,” she answered, “I could only assume since in all of the questionably legal things you’ve supposedly _never done_ , you also claim you’ve never been caught.”

“Once.” Nick replied, holding up a single clawed finger while glancing sideways with a smirk at his companion.

“Oh?” Judy was legitimately curious. What exactly was the fox going to claim was the one and only—

“Three months ago.” Nick told her. “I had the misfortune of running into this overly persistent, clever bunny who tricked me into incriminating myself.”

Judy’s ears fell, not drooping but instead the straight fall any bunny’s ears succumbed to briefly whenever they felt embarrassed . . . or overwhelmed by gratifying compliments. The playful grin she’d had during their back forth gave way instead to regular, and somewhat surprised smile. She kept it even after she turned her head forward to keep her eyes on the sidewalk in front of them.

“I did erase that part off the pen though.” Nick spoke up again. “So, Chief Bozo won’t have anything _recent_ on me.”

“Bozo?” Judy repeated, followed with a nervous laugh. “You might need to be careful about whose buttons you push once you’re working—” She stopped herself abruptly, both in speech and in pace. She hadn’t meant to let that slip just like that.

Nick halted as well when he saw that she’d stopped. He waited a moment for her to go on, and when she didn’t he turned himself completely to face her.

“Working what?” He asked.

Judy sighed, and shut her eyes for a second while her nerves caused her ears to fall.

“Carrots?” Nick asked, his default grin even gone, now actually concerned.

“I’d understand if you don’t want to,” Judy began, “since I only just even apologized to you yesterday. But, I was gonna grab a new ZPD application when we got there, since I left your old one back home.” Her words stalled for a few seconds, with a weighted feeling inside her chest, as if her sternum had been replaced with a lead weight. “I was going to ask you . . .” she finally went on, “if there’s any chance you still wanted to join the force? And be my partner?”

Nick himself was silent for the first moment that followed, merely staring back. The very same face of real, unprocessed surprise coming over him as had when she’d asked him the first time three months ago.

“You kept my application?” He finally asked.

It wasn’t the first thing Judy expected to hear, but she did have her own response quickly enough. “You kept my recording pen.” She reminded him.

Nick’s own ears fell, in their own way, though it was more slowly lowering themselves toward the sides of his head. His eyes did noticeably widen also, bringing about a look on his not too far from the one Judy had seen when she’d caught him on that second day. It didn’t last too long though, as he quickly made his ears return to their normal position and his eyes darted around a few times. 

“Uuhhh—I mean come on,” he finally produced a sentence, “I couldn’t just toss something that useful.” He only just managed to return to his laid-back, default grin after his words were finished.

Judy’s ears lifted themselves back upright, right in line with her own smile returning. “Uh-huh.” She said, with lone nod. “. . . so?”

“I mean,” Nick began, “I know they like make you buddy up in the fuzz, but . . . even if I made it through—”

“When.” Judy forcefully corrected him, encouraging smile and all.

Nick let the ends of his mouth curve just a little further upward, just a little bit. “When,” he went on, “are you really sure you wanna get stuck with me?” He asked

“Oh, I think I could handle it.” She confirmed.

The answer brought out her friend’s familiar wry smirk for a moment, however, after a few seconds he turned away and took a few steps off down the walkway. “I don’t know,” he said, forcefully dropping his expression to a flat face, “I might wanna just stick with my nice, lucrative businessman arrangement and go back to passing the days in a chair under the bridge.” His feet stopped when his words stopped, standing several steps off now, facing away.

Judy knew he was joking. He had to be. He just couldn’t resist messing with her yet one more way . . . right? The tiniest sliver of uncertainty, no matter how miniscule, it still felt like it could outweigh a mountain of surety.

“I take it that’s your awkward way of saying yes?” Judy asked, hopeful when she knew she shouldn’t have to be.

Nick slowly turned back around, twisting his head first, letting her see the sincere, upward curl to his mouthline along the side of his muzzle. He had his muzzle angled down, just enough to lend more attention to his eyes, over which his eyebrows had lifted into that universal position they were driven too when any mammal was surprised another didn’t understand something.

“Come on Carrots,” he said with a more softened tone of voice, “what do you think?”

Whether from thinking the fox to be funny, or to be opposite, or even from her own embarrassment Judy would never really be certain. But, she found herself giggling. And within a second after that, she crutched her way up to where he’d walked.

Nick let feigned a reluctant sigh and let his eyes roll. “Alright, fine.” He said, with her reaching him right afterwards and attempting to make a hug. 

Having to keep her crutches in her hands lest they fall down on the sidewalk, Judy wasn’t able to actually wrap her arms around his mid-torso. Nick hugged her back, for at least as long as it took him to become amused with her new impediment.

“Oh? Oh what’s this?” He couldn’t resist the teasing opportunity. “Can’t actually get me this time, can you?”

Judy had to laugh. For that that whole moment to have come to that particular end, there was no way around it. 

“I mean you gotta admit it is pretty pathetic to watch.” Nick cracked, only to have the hard side of a metal crutch suddenly whack his arm. 

“Agh!”

“Yeah,” She mocked right back, looking at the fox over-dramatically holding his arm, “you’re right. It is pretty pathetic to watch.” 

“Now that’s just cruel.” Nick played along as both of them resumed walking in their intended direction, just as the early morning sunlight was coming over the lowest buildings.

-

Eventually they reached the nearest subway entrance, the usual open, wide stairway leading a couple stories underground. There were a fair number of mammals going up and down, but it looked like there was still enough space Judy to make her way down without her crutch-hobble speed resulting in a foot traffic hold-up. But, like she should have seen coming, the very instant she went to place her crutches down on the first step and begin her descent, down came a pair of fox paws under her arms and up went Judy off of her feet.

“Really?” She asked, as Nick began walking down the steps, holding her up above them. The sight drew a number of stares from the surrounding stairway traffic, all which made Judy’s fur prickle.

“It’s alright, I’m her on-foot chauffer.” Nick told the gazing pedestrians walking up and down the stairs beside them, though the explanation only seemed to weirden the stares they received.

“I thought you said you _weren’t_ going to publicly humiliate me?” Judy asked.

“That was yesterday.” Nick answered, smirk and all.

Well, it wasn’t really as if there was much that Judy could do. She knew without a doubt that she could get out of his grip. Even with only one leg, a single thorough rabbit-kick back into the fox’s gut would’ve done it. But, they were on a concrete staircase. And even if there were no risk of them both going tumbling down, she would still almost certainly re-open the healing gash on her leg.

So, all she could do was groan in frustration while her ears tried to fall down, but were stopped by the presence of Nick’s arms and only ended up drooping over the edge of them.

The instant they reached subway station floor and Nick set her back down, Judy went hobbling forward to the platform on her own, as fast as the use of crutches would allow.

“What? No tip for the chauffer?” Nick asked, following up behind at a more leisurely pace.

Judy shot a look back over her shoulder as she reached the waiting platform. “Tips are only for working mammals, Slick.”

“Ouch.” Nick said back, as he came up to stand next to her.

“Relax,” she went on, “you’ll be a hard-working civil servant soon enough. With a taxable income.” She had to end that on a smirk.

Nick’s ears flattened themselves for a couple seconds, and his tail gave an ancy, uncomfortable flick. “You’re never gonna let that go, are you?” He asked, ears raising themselves back up.

The smirk of the rabbit next to him only grew with the sudden dawning that she finally had the rare upper hand in their eternal banter. “Between you and the law? Yes. Between you and me? Absolutely not.”

Judy didn’t see it, as her attention was drawn to the left by the sudden approach of the subway train, but Nick somehow found himself smiling at the end of her comment.

-

It was a fifteen-minute subway ride from Judy’s nearest station to the ZPD. Normally she took it early in the morning, and late night, both times when it wasn’t particularly full. Today though, being closer to eight in the morning, the commuting time for most normal mammals’ workdays, it was decently populated. She also normally stood for the duration of the ride, but given the crutch situation she had to actually sit down for this one. Nick sat next to her, leaning back against the hard plastic seat, eyes closed and paws folded behind his head pretending it was comfortable.

Mammals boarded and disembarked one stop after another. All coming and going, and Judy noticed, nearly all casting glances in her and Nick’s direction. The original boarding crowd that had seen him carrying her was mostly gone, so that couldn’t have been the reason. Aside from that, she could only assume the obvious . . .

“It is you two!” A female wolverine suddenly said, after walking over from the other end of the subway car.

Judy looked up in surprise, and Nick let one eye open to see.

“Peter and Fabi said on the news last night that you finally stopped all of this!” She said smiling, fangs and all.

Her excitement and glee came off so strong that it practically felt like a reflex for Judy to smile back. Judy opened her mouth to speak, but both their attention was abruptly drawn away by another voice.

“Really?” A nearby leopard spoke, her expression far from pleasant. “You think this is it?” She asked in a blatantly dismissive tone.

It took a second for her mind to process the leopard’s face, but Judy did suddenly recognize her. It was that same leopard mother from the Gazzelle rally, the one who Judy had barely managed to stop from fighting with that pig.

“Please.” The leopard kept going, bitterness overtaking her initial dismissive tone. “Everyone’s still gonna be afraid of us anyways. After all, it’s _genetic_ , it’s in our nature to _revert to our primitive, savage ways_.” She looked right across into Judy’s eyes as she nearly quoted her own former words.

. . . Mr. Big hadn’t iced them that night, back then. But this . . . this had to be what it would’ve been. Her skin and fur were fine, but inside it felt as if she had just been plunged into that arctic water.   
Judy’s mouth still hung partway open from when she was about to speak before. She wanted to say something, but right then the frigid cold of her own past words wouldn’t let her.

“She’s not afraid of us.” The Wolverine said to the leopard. “She’s sitting with a fox.” She even pointed to Nick.

“Surprised she’d lower herself that far.” The leopard remarked.

“. . . he’s my friend.” Judy managed to spill out a few words, while she subconsciously placed a paw over on Nick’s forearm.

“Like you’d willingly associate with any of us.” A nearby wolf responded in place of the leopard, though she added her own words right after him.

“All we are are just death traps waiting to be sprung.” She said.

Judy cringed before she managed to speak again, but even what was able to say came out rather meekly. “It’s not . . .” She had to take another second to breath, even shutting her eyes for the brief pause as well. “That was a horrible, horrible mistake. I learned the truth about what was going on afterwards. I don’t . . . think those things anymore.” In the end she found she couldn’t even finish her words with her head still held up, she had to let it fall.

“ _Of course_ you don’t.” A random hyena male mocked from a few seats away. “Now that you’ve got a population of mammals against you, you suddenly change your mind?”

“And that fox isn’t her friend, he just works for her.” An antelope, a _prey_ animal even joined with them. “I was at the same station they got on from. He said he was her chauffer.”

“Man,” Nick’s voice suddenly emerged from the very fox they were speaking about, “guess you can’t really grasp what a joke is.” He said to the antelope. “Must be real fun at parties.”

Nick gave an enormous yawn and an upward stretch of his arms while the group of them, and everyone else in the subway car who had been listening all stared him with mixed expressions.

“What kinda world do you even live in where a rookie cop makes enough to afford her own chauffer?” He openly joked to the antelope. And then, to all of their surprise and Judy’s as well, reached his arm over the top of her seat and set his own paw down on her shoulder. “And yes, actually, me and Officer Fluff here are friends. She’s one of the few mammals I can actually count among my one and a half friends. And she’s the _whole_ one, despite her size.” He told them, glancing at her quickly, smirk even showing just a little glimpse of teeth. Even in uncomfortable situations like these, or even dangerous ones like their adventure the day prior, he still had to get off a few jokes and jabs at her expense.

Instead of an annoyance though, right then to Judy it actually came as something of a comfort. She looked up to smile at him, however weakly of one she could form in the moment, even as he was already looking away.

“Yeah, you’re right.” Nick kept going, giving a shrug. “There’s no reason for you to believe her. I mean I might, but she did come to me after everything crying about how she was ignorant, and irresponsible, and nothing but a dumb bunny. Then she went and did that whole life-risking thing yesterday to stop all of this.”

“Coming from a fox? Like we’re gonna believe you’re not just getting paid to say—”

“Aahhh,” Nick cut the hyena off almost immediately, “the shifty, shady, do-anything-for-a-dollar fox stereotypes. Stereotyping each other. Cause _that’s_ how you’re gonna embody the whole _“pred pride”_ and _“predators unite”_ slogans right?”

It didn’t change the looks on of their faces, but the twist-around did at least clamp their mouths shut for the moment.

“You know she was actually gonna die?” Nick took advantage of it to keep going, still speaking silver-tongued, and still holding on perfectly to the same laid-back grin. “Willingly, like straight up, just die. We were trying to get away with the evidence during all the stuff they won’t be giving you details about on the news yet. She busted her leg and couldn’t keep running so she handed me the evidence and wanted me to just go take it myself while she stayed behind where our former deranged, woolly mayor and her goons were going to kill her.”

Nick waited, waited for any interjections from their fellow passengers, while Judy had returned to keeping her head and gaze down. 

“Obviously I wasn’t gonna let her get herself killed and we managed to actually get ourselves out of that one.” Nick still went on, selling it, just like he always had. “But you know, she was going to _just die_. For all of us. You know, the predators that she obviously hates and is terrified of. And now,” he removed his paw from Judy’s shoulder so he could lift his arms up in an open shrug for his finale, “now she’s about to go right back to work as a police officer for the ZPD to do whatever she can to help the mammals of Zootopia day in and day out even though she knows a whole bunch of you outright hate her.”

Silence.

They didn’t have any more words, apparently. Most slowly just looked away. Even the leopard eventually turned gaze another way, though her scowl remained. Only the wolverine was still staring at them, though it was something closer to awe and disbelief that covered her face. She glanced around for a second, just to check that the others had all looked away. When she made sure they had, she looked back at Nick and Judy and nodded her head rapidly a few times, while making a clapping motion with her paws but stopping them just short of actually coming together and making sound each time.

Nick threw off two fingers from the side of his eyebrow, giving her the cliché _“cool salute”_. 

Just as soon as his paw returned down to his lap the subway train began to slow, and he gently elbowed the bunny next to him to draw her attention up from the ground.

“Our stop, Carrots.” He said.

Judy stood up with her crutches, and they both stepped off when the doors slid open. 

“Nick . . .” Judy found herself only able to produce her friend’s name. She wanted to say thank you, or at least something of the sort. But no matter what, she didn’t feel like anything would really be enough.

“Don’t worry about it.” He smiled with a sideways glance as they headed for the stairway up to the surface.

“Thankyou . . .”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know what the funny thing is? I hadn't even watched zootopia until a little over a week ago XD  
> I was amazed to find something that was actually able to touch so many real issues, and that was able to do it WITHOUT bashing on cops


	3. Yes Sir

Judy didn’t complain when Nick carried her up the stairs this time. After that moment with the crowd they’d just had on the subway, she didn’t really have the mental energy to. 

They emerged from the subway entrance into the city’s Grand Central Square, around which Zootopia’s primary buildings of administrative importance were situated. The two most notable were of course the ZPD headquarters and City Hall, both standing across from each other on opposite sides of the large open space. It was already bustling like it normally was, mammals walking about every which way, traversing the footpaths that cut and sliced through the small grass park in the square’s center. This morning though, there were also two crowds gathered, each a mix of ordinary citizens and members of the press, and with camera crews and news vans situated a bit farther back from each, waiting. 

Thankfully for them, the larger crowd was gathered in front of city hall waiting to hear from the city council members. The crowd gathered at the ZPD was of a significantly lesser size, enough so that Judy believed they should be able to skirt around the looser edges of it without much trouble. And if they were quick enough, not be immediately recognized.

“Well, got to admit,” Nick remarked as they made their way towards the precinct building, “I wasn’t expecting us to get this big of a reception.”

“Dooon’t get too ahead of yourself there, slick.” She took the opportunity to fire a shot.

As they kept moving, she could see several officers up in front of the entrance to the ZPD building, as well as one white wolf standing a bit farther off to the side of it. It was Grizzoli, she realized a moment later. And he was doing more than merely standing in place, instead appearing to be scanning beyond the crowd, looking back and forth across the rest of the square. That is, until he suddenly made eye contact with her. Grizzoli kept his eyes looked on her for a brief second, likely just to be sure, and the she saw him make a quick, discrete hand sign to one of the others standing at the entrance. The other officer nodded, and stepped away from his position, heading through the rotating door into the building.

A moment later, as she and Nick were drawing nearer, the doors to the ZPD opened again. This time Francine emerged, the same elephant officer whose birthday had been the same as Judy’s first day on the force three months ago. She was wheeling out a speaking podium. Taking it to the left with her, she made for the opposite side from Grizzoli and quickly stepped behind it just Nick and Judy were nearing the rear of the small crowd.

Francine gave a sudden toot from her trunk, which immediately brought the crowd’s eyes all over to her. “Hello and good morning everyone. I have some quick things to announce here before Chief Bogo and Councilman Bellow officially address—”

Judy’s eyes quickly caught officer Grizzoli making a rapid beckoning motion to her and Nick with his paw, while his head kept snapping back and forth from them to the distracted press crowd.

She and Nick both took the hint and crept around the edge of the gathering, reaching him as quickly as Judy could on crutches.

Once they had reached him, the wolf stepped in between them and the crowd just for extra measure, and quickly ushered them through the doors into the ZPD without any of the distracted mammals outside noticing.

“Well whatta you know,” Judy said a few seconds after they were inside, looking up Nick, “there actually _was_ a reception for us.” 

Nick let his lips form a modest victory grin just before his answer. “And to think someone had been telling me not to get ahead of myself.” He mocked.

Instead of arm-punching, she knocked his shin with the bottom of one of her crutches.

“Ow!” Nick was left picking up the one leg, rubbing his paws over the spot Judy had struck.

Meanwhile, Judy began hobbling forward across the enormous police station lobby. Initially she was moving toward the reception desk, until she saw that it was . . . empty? 

She knew Clawhauser had been moved downstairs to the records department, her fault in which left her feeling her sternum turning into lead again. But, even with Clawhauser down in records there still should have been someone at the desk. For the time Judy had remained after the first press conference the desk position had been filled by an aging goat most of the time, Officer Mable. But right at this particular moment, there was no one.

There were two mammals on the lobby side of the desk, however. A pair of wolves stood there, one with white fur and the other with wooden-brown fur and a lighter underside. They were evidently waiting for someone to show up, both holding a beige-colored sheet of paper; ZPD applications. Something about them looked familiar, though she couldn’t quite . . .

“Hey,” Nick’s voice suddenly came to her ears again, right as his elbow lightly impacted her arm, “check it out. It’s the _original nighthowlers_.” 

_Then_ it clicked. They were the same pair of wolves from the gate of the asylum, the ones they had caused to initiate a howl.

“Hey guys.” Nick said to them, as he and Judy approached the desk. “The moon answer back yet?”

The wolves both turned about to see who’d spoken, and both of their faces fell when they recognized the fox and rabbit walking up to them. Gary, Judy remembered the white wolf being called, even had his ears fall down to the sides of his head, and his arms bent so the back of his paws were facing him like a begging dog.

“Great,” the wood-colored one remarked, a visible bit of bitterness mixing into his crestfallen expression, “what do you two want?”

“Well—” Nick began to open his smarmy snout before Judy instantly cut him off.

“ _We_ ,” she held a crutch out in front of him, in a hopeful signal for him to restrain himself, “are here to grab and application for my friend.” She took a final hobble up to the front desk and took an application form out from the tray.

She turned around to hand it to Nick, who was waiting with his version of a normal face, though with a single eyebrow ever so slightly raised.

Oh, he was disappointed, she could tell. Disappointed she was forcing him to shut it.

“You’re _both_ going to be here?” Gary asked, looking . . . scared almost, the front of his nose even drooping down.

The other cast him a saddened glance for a second before turning a bitter one back to the two of them. “Don’t worry, we probably won’t even pass the academy.” He said.

Judy felt her heart slip just a little. “So, what’s brought you two to apply for the ZPD?” She asked.

“It’s the only good place left.” Gary almost answered in a whine, looking down the entire time.

Judy’s ears fell back. It wasn’t exactly the answer she was expecting.

“We didn’t even know what was going on inside!” The other told her. “Even after we got released the next day it didn’t matter, the whole thing made Pack Shield lose all its shareholders overnight and the company dissolved. And none of the other security firms wanted us after they found out _we_ started the howling incident.”

And there, the moment came when the little rabbit’s heart felt like it weighed more than either of the wolves in front of her. There really were always background, peripheral consequences to everything. Her ears were already down, but now the muscles at their base relaxed to let them fully droop. She let out a deep exhale through her nose, with her eyes shut and her teeth biting down on the inside of both lips.

Judy’s eyes only opened again when she felt a fox paw lightly touching her shoulder. She looked up to her side finding Nick looking back at her, with actual sincerity in place of his prior smarmy grin. She really did enjoy whenever she got to see those moments of something other than jokes and snark, however uncommon they’d been over the three months they’d known each other, and the grand total of five days they’d actually spent interacting with each other. Though when it was born out of sadness or regret, it obviously couldn’t really be counted among the enjoyable ones.

“I’m sorry.” Judy spoke up again, turning back to the two wolves in front of them. “We were just trying to put a stop to everything that was going on.”

“Yeah, everybody knows.” The brown wolf responded flatly.

Judy’s ears remained down, though she managed to at least put on a light smile. “I’m sure you guys will do fine.” She promised. “I mean come on right, if a little bunny could make it through there’s no reason you guys can’t.”

Gary’s expression lifted, and his nose straightened back out at the encouragement. The other wolf however . . . looked less than impressed, or convinced. Judy couldn’t entirely discern whether it was a lack of willingness to take her word in particular, or whether he had just lost hope for the both of them.

“We have to show up for a meeting soon, but I hope we’ll see you guys in-uniform eventually. Future officers . . .” Judy invited an introduction.

“Gary Whitehowl.” Gary answered.

Judy heard a single snicker from Nick, while she shook Gary’s outheld begging paw. She offered a paw to the other wolf as well, though it took a few seconds before he was willing to shake it.

“Larry Briarhowl.” He answered.

Multiple snickers began coming from Nick at the second introduction.

Judy flung one of her crutches against his knee with some force, more than enough bring the snickering to an end and replace it with a yelp. 

“Aha ha, just,” she looked back to the two wolves again, “ignore him. Good luck you two.” She waved quickly before turning around. 

Nick was standing on one leg, cradling the knee Judy had struck.

“Come on.” She said, moving past him towards the elevator and leaving him to hop on one foot after her for the first few steps.

Nick did manage to set his other foot back down by the time they were halfway, once the initial pain had dropped down into a dull throbbing.

“I can’t believe they even have _howl_ in their names!” Nick whispered down to her.

She shot him a glare in response, at which his ears lowered down and his grin disappeared. 

If she didn’t knock it out of him now, she knew he was never going to let them live that whole thing down . . .

***

Nick and Judy both sat in front of Chief Bogo’s desk, forced to share the same seat. Not that it didn’t have enough space for them both, as it was intended for much larger mammals. Slightly bigger even than the regular chairs in the bull pen, as this one in particular had been for a hippo, councilman and now emergency-mayor Bellow, who’d just completed his own meeting with chief Bogo right when they’d arrived.

They told him everything, every detail to the lengths they could recall from undoing Bellwether’s plan the previous day. He already had one hoof to his forehead when they’d first entered, and now the other hoof had joined it over the course of their time with him. Nick had actually managed to act rather professionally, after Judy had pleaded with him in the hallway beforehand to do so for the sake of his potential to be hired.

“Well,” Bogo said, “this is certainly going to be a joy.”

“Yeah, sorry we had to cause a whole _round 2_ of everything.” Nick said. He spoke it without any smarmy, joking tone, but it did throw Judy into a sudden worry.

Judy looked quickly from the fox to the buffalo, only to find the latter simply staring back with no apparent reaction, or at least no negative one.

After a few seconds Bogo sat back upright in his chair, finally taking his hooves off his forehead, placing one down on the desk in front of him while letting the other fall to his side.

“Never apologize for stopping the actions of a terrorist.” He finally responded.

Relief replaced Judy’s worry over Nick’s remark, though there was another she wanted to assuage. “We have more than enough, right sir?” She asked.

“Please, Hopps,” Bogo answered, “you seem to be forgetting that the rest of us are also capable of carrying out an investigation. Even just the last eighteen hours since finding you and arresting her has given us a mountain of evidence no mammal could ever escape from. We scanned through the railway surveillance cameras and found several minutes of two of her accomplices attempting to murder you and the fox. _All_ of her accomplices are placing the blame on her, not that they’ll be escaping their own charges. And in her own attempt to murder you, the fact seemed to escape her that you were all in a large public building which, also, is riddled with surveillance cameras.”

That last bit had even eluded Judy herself up until that moment. Of course the museum had cameras everywhere, like almost any other public building in a large city. There was an old saying that always seemed to come back: that no matter how smart they seemed to be, in the end criminals were ultimately stupid.

“Her own direct admission of guilt you recorded is still worth its own weight in gold.” Bogo went on. “Your tearful, blubbering apology to Mr. Wilde at the beginning not withstanding.”

Aaand Judy’s ears dropped, and her eyes shot open. She looked over at Nick, who looked like he had just as equally forgotten that was on there.

“But,” the chief drew their attention back again, “I don’t have much time left before I have to appear for the initial press conference. So, moving on,” he opened one of his desk drawers and withdrew a ZPD police badge, “you’ll be needing this back, Officer Hopps.” He said, sliding it across the desk to their side.

Even though she’d known already that it was going to happen, it didn’t make the bunny any less elated when it did, ears backup and all. She reached out and took the badge from the desk, holding it with both paws and running her eyes across her badge number . . . with a very different, but equal joy to the very first time she’d received it months ago.

“Thankyou, sir.” Judy said.

“That was the first and only time I’m going tolerate you taking _unapproved leave_.” He spoke with emphasis on his final words, just to make sure she caught the alteration to reality. “Your absence lasted just over a week. So, as a disciplinary measure you’ll be working your first week back without pay. Do you understand?”

“Yes sir.” Judy may well have been the only officer ever to respond to that message with a smile on their face.

“Your first day returning is going to be the day after tomorrow. I’m restricting you to desk duty until you’re able to walk properly. Since you _were_ still an officer through all of this, the stack of proper incident reporting paperwork you have to fill out should give you more than enough to do. Now, if you can both get out of—” Bogo was about to send them away, but once she realized he was finished Judy spoke up.

“Sir? I had something else I wanted to bring up.” Judy said.

Bogo looked . . . tired. There surely was some annoyance in there, but tiredness was the main thing that was showing.

“Nick wants to apply for the ZPD academy.” She told him, while Nick cautiously placed the application form on the desk. “And for whatever it’s worth, I wanted to give my personal recommendation.” She couldn’t entirely keep her nerves out of her voice.

“I don’t care,” Bogo’s answer came plain, and cold, until it abruptly turned around, “normally, and I shouldn’t care now. But given it’s you, and in light of everything you’ve done and everything you’ve prevented, I’ll consider your recommendation worth something.” He then turned from Judy to Nick. “And, given Mr. Wilde’s contribution to all of the above, I’ll consider partially ignoring his record.”

Neither of them were shocked by the comment. Judy already knew by police procedure, and Nick was simply smart enough to guess on his own that after everything that had happened they would have wanted to conduct an identity check on him.

“I want you to answer a question honestly, however, Mr. Wilde.” The chief said, leaning forward on his desk again. “You have a collection of misdemeanors across your juvenile record, and a pawful in your early adulthood but then nothing else afterword. Do you really expect me to believe you just magically stopped doing anything illegal or questionably legal the moment you turned twenty?”

Nick didn’t answer immediately. And in fact, the office was silent just long enough for Judy’s ears to tune in to the sound of her own accelerating heartbeat. When Nick did answer, he kept his face, and his voice for that matter, completely and entirely straight.

“No sir.” He said. “I only stopped getting caught.”

In mirrored form, Chief Bogo didn’t immediately respond either. Though his face was completely readable, slightly raised eyebrows giving away the fact that he was perhaps mildly surprised, though not impressed, by the honesty of the answer he’d received. His eyebrows fell back down the small distance they’d gone, and after another few seconds he let out a large exhale through his nose.

“Well,” he finally responded, “there’s no sentimental carrot pen here to record your admission is there.”

It took a second or two for the response to sink in, and once it had Judy almost jumped up from the seat to thank him. But, the chief cut her off this time.

“This, falls, on, you,” he said, staring sternly at Judy and then pointing a hoof finger at Nick, “if he goes off the trail in _any_ way.”

Judy’s response to what was effectively a career-ending threat, was a rapid, happy nods. “Yes sir! He won’t.” She spoke for Nick, who was still silent and glancing over at her.

“Your application should process in time for the next academy enrollment. It starts in ten days, if you think you’re ready. Or you can wait till next year for the spring enrollment.” Bogo told Nick.

“Nah, sooner the better.” Nick answered, though his straight face had broken and been replaced with what looked to Judy like a grateful smile. “I’ll be ready.”

“Good, now please—”

“Sir?” Judy stopped him from ordering them out again.

“What now, Hopps? Let me guess, you want me to assign him as your partner too, if he graduates?” Bogo demanded with notable impatience, but also without really raising his voice any, purely owing to the tiredness.

“Yes sir. . .” Judy’s answer stayed level, despite her rising nerves at how much she knew she was pushing the envelope.

“You can’t _get_ a partner assigned to you, Hopps.” The chief responded initially. “You’re still an entry-level officer, you can only _be_ assigned to be a superior officer’s partner. You would have to be promoted to patrol officer to even be able to have a partner assigned to you. And while you can have all the meritorious accolades you want on your service record, you know there is still a mandatory minimum service period required to become eligible for each rank promotion. To get promoted above entry-level officer status—”

“Six months on the job, sir. I know.” Judy finished the construct for him.

“If Mr. Wilde completes his three months at the academy,” Bogo wasn’t really giving in, but he might as well have been at this point, “by the time he gets instated you’ll have been on the force for just over six months. You’ll be cutting it _very_ close.”

While Nick looked and was surprised at how that had all just gone, Judy all smiles and upright ears. 

“Thankyou, chief. I promise—” She got cut off this time.

“Just go!” Chief Bogo finally did raise his voice.

They both more than eagerly dropped down from the seat. Nick walked, and Judy hobbled over to the door.

“Hopps.” Chief Bogo spoke up one last time, as he himself also stood up to leave. “Don’t bet everything you have on being granted that promotion the first time you put in for it. Captain Vitani oversees promotion review. She’s not as impressionable and generous as I am.”

***

Nick and Judy both emerged into the ZPD lobby, Nick now carrying a _“Joining the Fuzz?”_ academy guidebook from the applicant resources table. 

While Nick was staring at the guidebook cover, Judy was happily listing off a variety of other items he would require. “You’ll also need to grab a Standard Procedure Manual, Basic Police Forms and Files guide, a copy of _“Condensed Zootpian Common Law”_ , oh! And don’t forget you have to memorize the ZPD officer’s creed.”

Nick looked back down at her with his casual, default grin restored now that they were out of Chief Bogo’s office. “Is that all now?” He feigned downplaying it.

“Well, since you asked,” Judy answered with a smirk of her own, “no, actually.”

Nick’s casual smugness vanished, just like she knew it would. 

She resumed as they kept walking. “You _also_ have to—Clawhauser!” The sight up ahead of the very first officer ever to greet her, or treat her with any respect, drew her immediate attention. And Nick’s, by proxy.  
Sure enough, there was a tubby cheetah officer now behind the reception desk. He wasn’t seated however, instead leaning over the back of what used to be his chair entering something quickly into the system computer while Gary and Larry waited. He stopped to look up when he heard his name being yelled, and his face lit up when he saw who it was.

“Officer Hopps!” He called back with a cheery smile.

She began to hurry over to the desk as safely as crutches would allow. Along the way though, she felt the sudden excitement being abruptly counteracted. It was guilt, guilt over the fact that he was still happy to see her . . . even despite her being the cause of his relocation.

“I can’t believe you’re back! Everyone said you quit?” Clawhauser said as Judy came up to the desk.

“I did.” She explained. “But, Chief Bogo had me _un-quit_.”

The cheetah’s tail flip-flopped about a few times while his smile lit back up. “That’s so great! Nobody could believe it when they heard you quit. I’ll bet everyone’s gonna glad to find out you’re staying.”

Judy had to doubt that. There was no way, not with how much difficulty she had certainly caused them, and especially not with what she’d said given the better part of the force were predators.

“So,” she diverted the subject, “ah-are you back at the front desk now?” She asked, only realizing the second after that she’d likely just switched to a worse subject.

“Oh, not yet!” The answer he gave, to Judy’s surprise, was gleeful. “I’m moving back up here at the end of the week! We have to wait till we transfer someone from Precinct Three to takeover in records since Chief can’t just switch me and Officer Mable back again since she uh . . . dealing with mammals at the front desk and dispatch was kind of starting to push her over the edge, so she decided she was finally gonna retire. I just came up here real quick to help put these guys’ applications in!” He ended, pointing a whole paw at the two wolves.

“That’s . . . I’m glad you’re getting the job you want back.” Judy _was_ genuinely happy for her spottiest friend. At that moment though, she was just more surprised . . . surprised that some parts of the damage she’d caused could be undone, _were_ being undone.

“Oh yeah!” Clawhauser explained. “Moving predators out of public reception spaces was an order from Bellwether, so after she was arrested yesterday,” he made a quick motion across his throat with a claw, “Chief Bogo instantly one-eightied that one!”

“Donuts?” Nick’s voice suddenly arose again, with him taking notice of the open box sitting on the counter.

“Yeah! Oh, did you want one?” Clawhauser asked.

“Hey, if they’re being offered.” Nick shrugged.

“Sure, go ahead!” The cheetah answered. “Let me get back to putting these two guys’ stuff through.” He leaned back down to the computer and resumed typing in Gary and Larry’s information.

Nick stood on the tips of his toes to reach across the counter, picking out a donut of his choice. And then, with no shame, turned over to Judy and said, “Hey, if I’m gonna be cop, better start lining up all the clichés.” Taking a bite out of the donut, he waited.

It wasn’t a long wait. Judy’s ears fell back at first, but they almost immediately shot back up upon the changing of her expression to one of incredulity. And her one good foot started thumping.

“Really?” She asked.

“Hey,” the fox answered, full smarmy grin returned, “ _you_ chose _me_ , sweetheart. You just told big boss chief you _want_ me for a partner.”

Judy groaned as she turned the right, and then started heading away. “And once you’re on the force you’re going to spend our entire careers trying to make me regret it?” She posed the rhetorical question.

A smarmy grin became a content smile as the fox followed the bunny. “You know it.” He promised.

Gary and Larry watched them walk away, and when they turned their own heads back to the desk, they found Clawhauser staring at the departing pair with enormous eyes and gaping mouth. The two looked at each other and each waved a paw in front of the cheetah for his attention. He turned his head over to them, but then looked back and forth between the wolf duo and Nick and Judy. 

“Did you guys see that?” He asked in a thrilled, but hushed voice. “They were SO precious!” He reached over the counter before they could respond in any way and pulled them in close to whisper. “Can you guys keep a secret?” He asked, but he wasn’t asking for an answer. 

With one last look past them at the exiting fox and bunny, Clawhauser leaned back in, and revealed the secret that needed to be kept.

“I ship them SO MUCH.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yes, the modest cameos are eventually coming, if you couldn't tell from the name drop at the end of the meeting with Bogo.


	4. Connections

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please do consider reading my other story as well

Judy had been apprehensive about them being recognized and confronted again. Afterall, a fox and an injured bunny already weren’t exactly a common duo to see on the street, so they were inclined to attract passing glances regardless. And glances obviously heightened the chance of recognition. However, the press conference with Chief Bogo that had begun shortly after they’d left the precinct seemed to be functioning as a perfect shield in a way. Most mammals who’d been following things closely enough to have recognized the two of them were invested enough to be watching the ongoing conference on their phones as they walked about, keeping their attention away from the odd pair of friends passing them by.

Whether watching Bogo speak, or in the majority’s case simply texting or selecting music, the surrounding city of mammals looking at their phones struck Judy with a sudden realization.

“Ugh.” Her ears fell down, and her head dropped forward while they continued along the sidewalk.

“Aww,” an annoying, albeit pleasantly-annoying voice spoke up in response next to her, “what is it now, Bumleg?” Nick asked.

“I forgot to ask around for a charger while we were in there.” She said, pulling out her dead phone as they came to a stop at a crossing light.

“Worried about panicked parents again?” Nick asked the obvious.

“They’re going to try to call or text me when they’re getting ready,” Judy began, eyes flipping from one side to the other with each mentioning, “and when they head to the train station, and when they get on the train, and when the train starts to move, _and_ when they’re half way, that’s _if_ my mom keeps a grip on my dad, _and_ finally when the train’s pulling in.” 

“You know,” Nick asked, as the light changed and they started to cross the street, “ _how_ , exactly, were you expecting them to handle you being a big-city cop and living hundreds of miles away?”

“I wasn’t.” She answered.

“Wow,” Nick said back, “and here I thought I was the only one you were harsh to.”

“Nick!” She took the bait. Even though she knew it was exactly that, she still took it anyways.

The fox’s hands went casually up in a surrendering motion beside his shoulders before his mouth opened again. “Relax, Carrots, we’ll get that dead phone taken care of.”

“You have the same kind of charger?” Judy asked, hope rising.

“Not me,” he said, placing a paw to his chest for a second, “but I know a guy.”

“Oh,” Judy decided she had a mocking opportunity, “you’ve got the street hook-up for different kinds of phone chargers? _Someone’s_ got connections.”

“Hey, don’t get too jealous now.” Nick merely just bounced it back, before abruptly drawing the rabbit’s attention to location they had just arrived at. “Aaand here we are.” He announced.

He had brought them to a stop only a few steps onto the opposite street corner. The corner building itself was unlabeled, and had nothing really distinguishing it from the other brick buildings along the block it was attached to. The only noticeable feature around was a modest fruit and vegetable stand set up against the wall. It had about a dozen baskets offering a pawfull of things from carrots to blueberries, apples, a couple pumpkins and few others. Judy wasn’t certain at first, but something about the little stand and the female deer behind it came off as familiar.

“And what exactly are we doing here?” Judy asked.

Nick bent down with a smirk, reaching a paw out but stopping just short of poking the rabbit in the stomach. “We, are here to grab some food for a certain friend of mine who I have this inexplicable feeling hasn’t eaten anything since those few fistfuls of berries we shared on the way to find Weaselton yesterday.” He said, before straightening back upright.

Somehow . . . somehow the feeling of that reality had been completely absent both last night and this morning. Whether it had been stress, excitement, anticipation or all of the above, she didn’t know. But, Judy hadn’t felt it at all until the fox mentioned it. Only now did she suddenly experience the sensation that had been suppressed for all that time, a weakness-inducing sensation of an empty vacuum inside of her core.

Her ears dropped and her blinking momentarily stopped at the abrupt onset of hunger.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Nick assumed, or more rather simply knew he was right.

He spun around to the small stand, letting the bunny inevitably glare at him from behind.

“Oh! Hi Nick!” The doe behind the stand recognized him, the positive manner with which she did so drawing Judy’s surprise.

“Hey Darla.” Nick greeted her back.

“Cup of blueberries?” Darla asked.

“Of course,” Nick answered, “and a basket of carrots too, actually.” He side-stepped to reveal Judy, pointing back at her with a thumb. “Got miss clumsy bunny with me today.”

Darla smiled at Judy and raised a hoof to wave, but just before the side-to-side motion would have started she stopped herself, and her smile disappeared.

“The bunny from that press conference?” The deer asked, though she clearly already knew. Her face however hadn’t become a scowl or any display of anger, but actually something much closer to worry as she looked over to Nick again.

“Eh,” Nick let his head tilt and gave a half-shrug, “she had a different brain back then.” He reached over to lightly pat Judy’s head twice. “Everything’s all good now.”

Judy didn’t even attempt to swat his paw away. Her mind in that moment was primarily focused on avoiding eye contact with the unexpected recognizer.

“. . . Ok. If you say so.” Darla responded. Although her voice wasn’t entirely steady, it also wasn’t the kind of jaded or dismissive tone Judy would’ve expected to hear. It was obvious she was still a bit unsure, but it sounded as if she were taking Nick at his word about the rabbit. “That’s twelve for everything.” She went on to give a flat price, as most street vendors didn’t care to bother with cents.

Nick took the basket of four large carrots with the serving cup of blueberries balanced in the middle of them and handed over a set of bills before signaling to Judy to resume their journey to his _phone-charger guy_.

Judy began crutching her way after him as they resumed heading in the same direction they already had been.

“Nick!” Darla suddenly called out. “This is more than—”

“Ah-huh,” Nick acknowledged what she was going to say, “at least I didn’t leave ya double this time.”

The deer stared at the two of them continuing on their way, looking back down at the bills in her hoof several times as well and inevitably counting them again to confirm he had in fact handed her eighteen dollars instead of only twelve.

Judy looked back over her shoulder at the deer for a second, and then went to ask Nick a question. As she turned her head to him however, they happened to be passing by an alley, and it was one that she recognized. The alley they walked by was the very same Nick had led her down on the first day they met, whilst he had been narrating how he expected her inevitable failure as a cop to go. And, if that was the same alley as that day, then that meant . . .

_That’s_ why Darla and her produce stand looked familiar! It was her stand that they walked past on that day, and that Judy had watched Nick steal a blueberry from. 

“Nick . . .” Judy actually wasn’t entirely sure what to say. Darla had recognized him, which meant he had to have been _buying_ produce from her for at least some amount of time. But she didn’t appear to that day they had walked by, which meant . . .

“Started buying stuff from her a couple months ago, maybe a month and a half.” Nick pre-emptively answered.

“And the overpaying?” Judy asked.

Nick’s default grin didn’t break, nor did his voice level out. But even so, Judy could still feel the regret that was there, somehow. “I avoided paying her long enough.”

The comment made Judy realize and speak to the obvious. “So that wasn’t the first time you _lifted_ a berry from her?”

“Yoouu bunnies,” Nick tried to play it off, “getting more and more clever by the day. Slap that together with Bunnyburrow’s population size and someone might get a nutty conspiracy going about you guys plotting to take over the world.”

“Ha ha.” It was at least funny enough for Judy to roll her eyes at. Even in situations where things shouldn’t be funny, she was secretly willing to admit Nick always still managed to make things work. “But, Nick,” she still just wanted to confirm, “you started doing that after my stupid press conference?”

The upturned corners of the fox’s mouth finally relented themselves to a flatter line, and his ears relinquished a little bit of height. “About a month after it, or something like that.” He said. “Don’t play it up too much. I tried for the whole first month, but, I couldn’t get back to the way things were before that.”

The two came to a stop at the next crossing light, as Judy felt the vacuum of hunger momentarily replaced by an uplifting feeling.

“Soo, I was right?” Judy asked, drawing an intrigued glance from the fox next to her. “You _are_ so much more than that.”

The light changed in their favor, and a smirk returned to Nick’s face.

“Hey, I told you not to play it up too much.” He said, as they proceeded to cross the next street.

Well, that was as good as an admission, she assumed, so she let herself field a smug grin of her own. 

Upon coming to the next stop, Judy felt compelled by the returning emptiness of hunger to reach for one of the carrots in the basket Nick carried.

But, at the last second Nick moved it out of her reach.

“Ah-uh-ah!” He said, full smarmy grin returning. “Don’t think I’m just gonna let you eat these things raw.”

“Oh?” She asked in response. “Were you planning on making some kind of _exquisite_ dish for me with them?”

“Hey, if you consider grilled carrots an exquisite dish then maybe.” He answered.

“You have a grill?” She asked.

“Nah,” he said, “but I know a guy.”

***

To Judy’s surprise, the two of them eventually arrived at a very familiar van, one she’d gone knocking on the rear door of only yesterday.

“Finnick has a grill?” She asked, initially wondering how many things the fennec could have in his vehicle before she remembered the little mammal’s size.

“Finn’s got a bit of everything.” Nick answered, reaching a paw up and knocking on the van’s rear door. 

A second passed by before the door flung open much the same as it had twenty-four hours ago. It revealed a little beige fennec fox with an angry thug glare and holding up a steaming clothes iron.

“Beg me for money ONE MORE TIME!” Finnick shouted. His eyes inevitably looked down after not spotting any larger mammals, and when he saw Judy standing there again, his threatening demeanor mostly slipped away.

“Ey, it’s Bunnycop.” He greeted her, switching off the clothes iron and placing it back down somewhere out of sight. “And _look_ what she found!” He said when he looked back out and noticed Nick standing next to her.

“Yeah, she came sobbing and crying to me after you sent her my way yesterday.” Nick said, drawing _a look_ from the bunny next to him.

“Really?” Finnick remarked. “And now what’s the pair’a you out here to bother me for?” He asked.

“Officer Toot Toot’s phone’s dead.” Nick explained. “And she was oh so beside herself with tears and regret yesterday she forgot her charger back on the family farm.”

“I didn’t start crying until _after_ I found you.” Judy corrected the statement.

“And she hasn’t eaten since yesterday,” Nick added, holding up the carrot basket, “so I was wondering if you felt like grilling her some lunch?”

The little fennec cocked a brow while one of his ears dipped down to the side. “You wanna come asking me for favors after you left me hangin for the last month and a half?”

“Not for me, for her.” Nick clarified. “And come on, don’t try to make me think you couldn’t work the daily grind without me.” 

The smaller fox scowled, even briefly showing a flash of teeth. However, his face did relent from it by a noticeable margin when his eyes moved back over to the crutch-bound rabbit. Both his ears dropped down, and his expression changed to that of a mammal clearly forcing themselves to do something they didn’t want to.

“Fine!” He said. “I’ll let Bunnycop charge her phone, but I ain’t cookin nobody anything.”

Finnick reached out a paw towards Judy, who then reached into her pocket for her phone.

“Forty bucks?” Nick suddenly spoke again.

Finnick looked back over at the larger fox, waiting for some further set of words.

“How bout your usual payday of forty bucks?” Nick offered, holding his paws spread out. “Forty bucks for what, ten, twenty minutes grilling up some carrots and then sitting around hanging out with friends?”

“ _Friends_?” Finnick almost looked amused, but clearly wasn’t buying into the word.

Nick lifted up his spread arms and raised his salesman smile a bit.

“Fifty.” Finnick answered after a few more seconds.

Nick’s arms fell back down to his sides, and his grin returned to its default position. “Forty-six.” He said. “That’s all I got in cash on me.”

“Go find an ATM.” The little fennec told him.

The larger fox let something between a sigh and groan, briefly lifting his snout up to the sky.

Judy looked over at him for a second, until both of them were drawn back to Finnick at his next set of words.

“Come on!” Finnick drew their eyes back to him. “You know I’m foxin ya Nick.” He ended with a nearly evil grin of his own. “I am taking all that cash though.”

Judy wasn’t exactly sure what to think as she looked from one to the other, at least until she saw a genuine, Nick-ish smirk taking over the larger fox’s face.

“Careful there big guy,” Nick said playfully, pulling out the total wad of forty-six dollars, “you might end up making somebody think we don’t like each other.”

The smaller fox snatched the cash from the larger, and managed to count it out faster than Judy thought she had ever seen. He held his paw back out for her phone afterwards, which he took much more politely. 

“Grab a seat.” He said, flinging open the other half of the rear van doors and revealing, among many other things, a very small grill and a folded-up set of collapsible chairs. 

Nick gave Judy a quick, victorious smirk before grabbing and unfolding the first of the collapsed seats while Finnick went to the front of the van to plug in Judy’s phone.

***

A short while later Finnick was poking and overturning the last of the grilling orange vegetables before finally skewering it and plopping it onto Judy’s plate.

“Thanks.” She said, continuing to bite off pieces of one of the carrots Finnick had already completed.

“See? I told ya he was good.” Nick just managed to properly sound out words through a mouthful of berries.

Finnick hopped up to sit on the edge of the back of the van, with his tiny legs hanging over. “Really?” He asked. “And what else have you been tellin?”

“Ralm downf fuddy.” Nick lost his ability to make proper syllables through his full mouth.

“Hey, I don’t know what I’m supposed to be thinkin after you just drop everything and cut out for over a month.” Finnick responded. “I ain’t got no idea what you were up to.”

Nick swallowed his mouthful before speaking back. “I wasn’t really _up_ to anything.” He said. “Well, not until yesterday.”

“Runnin around with Bunnycop playing hero again?” Finnick said back. “Yeah, I caught that much.”

“Well, not _just_ that.” Judy added. “ _Now_ , Nick’s joining the ZPD.”

The little fennec’s head shot over to the larger fox, with swollen eyes and upraised ears.

“Only if I get past the academy, Carrots.” Nick reminded her.

“Ahahahaha, AHahahahahahaha—” The little beige fuzzball might as well have exploded, briefly leaning over and clutching his gut before inevitably throwing himself back, lying face-up on the floor of the van.

The fox and the bunny watched in patient amusement as the fennec’s laughter went on and on. What started as laughing inevitably decayed into wheezing after Finnick started to run out of air, although contractions visibly continued trying to produce laughter even after there was no medium left to produce the sound.

“Don’t forget to breathe, buddy.” Nick gave some mocking encouragement.

An enormous gasping inhalation came from Finnick as he bolted back upright. “I was right!” He managed to shout out. 

Judy looked to Nick, who still held his eyes on the little fennec. 

“She got in yo HEAD, man!” Finnick’s volume remained unrestrained, but his expression and the energy in his voice didn’t give off any ill bearing. As far as Judy could perceive, he was nothing but amused. “I knew it! Hahahahahaha!”

“Alright, alright,” Nick said, “take an oxygen break, Finn.”

They both waited while the smallest member of the trio calmed himself down and re-normalized his breathing.

“You _knew_?” Judy had to inquire.

“Are you kidding?” Finnick asked back. “Nick ain’t ever got his head back on after yall’s first little _adventure_.” He explained. 

“Yeah,” Judy looked over at Nick again, “I’ve been hearing.”

Nick just turned his head away for the moment to avoid eye contact.

“Joining the fuzz though?” Finnick added. “Nah, I ain’t gonna pretend I saw that _comin_.” He looked over to his friend also. “You know when I said _“you a cop now, Nick”_ you weren’t supposed to take that literally?”

The larger fox gave what Judy could only call a smug shrug in response.

“And whatta you expect you’re leaving me to do then?” Finnick asked, a bit more seriousness creeping into his voice as his arms folded up.

“Aw come on,” Nick answered, “don’t try to tell me you can’t manage things without me. I thought you would’ve been happy to finally get to ditch the baby elephant costume.”

An audible growl escaped the fennec for a few seconds after the reply.

An idea suddenly struck Judy right then, the combination of what she and Nick had just brought an end to yesterday and Finnick raising the point of his apparently now-unstable income bringing a realization to the front of her mind.

“You’re not opposed to working a regular job, are you?” She asked him.

Finnick raised an unimpressed eyebrow at the question. “I’m not opposed to _money_.” He answered. “But don’t go thinking I never went down that way before. Any job that’s gonna hire a street-mammal’s minimum wage.”

“Minimum wage is more than forty bucks a day.” She said, lifting an eyebrow of her own.

“And minimum wage is more _work_ than I did to get forty bucks a day.” He answered back.

“Well, how about something that will probably get you a bit _more_ than minimum wage?” She asked.

“Don’t you even try to tell me you wanna throw a badge on me too.” Finnick assumed he was stopping her in tracks.

Judy stifled a single, reflexive laugh. Nick, however, couldn’t avoid snickering for a good half-moment at the thought his old friend had just presented.

“No,” Judy promised, “I was thinking of something a little different.” She paused when she remembered the particular business she had in mind wasn’t actually running at the moment, or at least it wouldn’t be back up and running until its owner recovered. But, it was still something. “It’s not open yet,” she said, “but I can get Nick to let you know once it is.”

“What is it?” The inevitable question came.

“Uh, I know someone whose husband runs his own small business.” She explained. “He’s been sick for a while but he should hopefully be getting things back up soon. And I’m pretty sure he’s gonna be hiring since he’s probably lost his employees over the last few months.”

Finnick listened with concealed interest, his face giving away nothing as his own default expression was an eternal look of not being impressed.

Nick, meanwhile, stared at Judy with a visible degree of confusion, unsure of what exactly she was referring to.

“What’s it pay?” Finnick finally offered up the final and ultimate question.

“I . . . don’t know.” Judy admitted. “I know it’s definitely more than forty bucks a day, but I’ll have to ask about what they’d be offering. I’ll find out as soon as I can though, I promise.”

Finnick considered everything for a moment, and then looked over to Nick.

“I’d go ahead and just trust her if I were you.” Nick told him. “If she decides she’s gonna do something there’s basically no getting out of it. No escape.”

The fennec turned his head back to the seated rabbit, letting a single eyebrow lift itself again. “Get back to me when you find out. I’ll let you know if worth my time.” He said, and then hopped back up onto his feet to walk into the van.

Nick watched his friend head towards the front where Judy’s phone was charging and took the opportunity to lean forward towards Judy and ask the question his mind was raising. “And? What place are you referring to exactly?”

“Otterton’s floral shop.” Judy answered. 

Nick looked surprised at first, though his normal grin swiftly returned, bringing a quick round of snickering with it.

“I think it’s better deal than wearing a baby elephant suit every day.” Judy said, crossing her arms and smiling smugly at the victory she already she’d won.

Nick tried for a moment, but ultimately she was right and he had to concede. “Alright, you got me on that.”


	5. Never Change

This time, Judy had actually awoken to the sound of her alarm.

Her parents had brought her alarm clock with them yesterday, along with most of her other things as they had promised. In fact, they’d brought a little more than she would’ve liked, certainly more of her belongings than she had brought with her herself when she’d first moved to Zootopia three months before. And, after her parents had left the boxes with her and her tag-along fox, said fox had been unable to keep himself from peering inside the unsealed boxes. The one box he was able to snoop inside before she put a stop to it just had to be the one her parents had filled with her old stuffed animals and plush toys. Oh how many _implied threats_ it had taken to even get him to shut up at least while they’d brought her things back to her apartment, nevermind the snickering. 

WHY did they even remotely think she wanted them to bring her those?

Nick had done the actual carrying when it came to taking the three boxes back to Judy’s apartment, given the fact that she couldn’t carry anything whilst she was still obligated to walk on crutches. Granted, even if she could safely walk on both legs already she _still_ likely would have forced him to carry everything anyways just as punishment. Even if he had saved her from her parents’ overwhelming concern.   
When she had raised the concern over meeting them with crutches he had hidden them in the line of shrubbery between parking aisles outside the train station, along with having her text them ahead of time that they would be waiting with the truck outside so that she could lean against it in her crutches’ absence. She did have to inevitably take a few steps when the time came to hug them, and when they noticed her limp, Nick had managed to convince them that she banged her knee really bad earlier in the ZPD offices. He even turned it into a joke about how they shouldn’t be so worried about her because she was apparently better at avoiding harm out in the field than at a desk. She knew no one else could have sold that more convincingly.

Of course, before her parents drove off in the truck, her dad had asked that one question _again_. 

Sitting at her desk in her tiny apartment, she shook her head while her eyes rolled. Her dad was a bit of helicopter parent. Not that her mother wasn’t too, but the different levels between the two were more than measurable. If, _when_ she eventually got assigned Nick as a partner, she knew she was probably going to hear that question come up again.

But, for now she simply sat eating a breakfast of sorts; a little bowl of Cheery-Burrows cereal. It was a bit later than she would normally have eaten. She’d gotten up with her alarm to re-instill the habit, given she was supposed to return to work tomorrow. For the first hour and a half or so she’d been distracted with videos and news clips on her phone. 

It had begun with watching the Chief’s press conference from yesterday, and then the new emergency mayor’s. As it normally did, each clip or video watched led Zoogle to provide a new _“recommended for you”_ suggestion. Her first two viewings lead to a clip of Peter and Fabienne speaking about Bellwether’s accomplices, and the disturbing fact that three of the rams working with her had been ZPD officers. That had led to a later clip from yesterday evening of them interviewing a retired prosecutor about the kind of, degree and sheer number of charges Bellwether and the others would likely be facing. And now, finally, a brief bit from the ZNN early morning crew about nighthowler flowers being a common hazard known to farmers out in the burrows, and that, to Judy’s thrill, numerous clinics and small-town hospitals from her parents’ area were shipping some of their antidote doses to the city.

Apparently the antidote worked relatively fast if it was given quickly, at least according to what her mother had said when telling her the latter part of the story of her uncle Terry’s incident from when they were young. The longer an animal had been under the flower’s influence though, the longer it would apparently take for their mental state to be restored to normal, so most of the mammals that had been afflicted during all of this would likely take a couple days to come back around completely. But, the important thing was that they would, above all else.

A notification bell suddenly sounded, interrupting her phone’s other audio.

Judy tapped the glowing icon in the corner of the screen. When the present display was replaced with her new messages log, it revealed . . . Nick? Already?

They _had_ actually exchanged numbers yesterday, and that had been a hilarious conversation in and of itself.

_“You know I only just found you again yesterday,” she had started the joke, “do you normally ask for a girl’s number this soon?”_

_“Well,” Nick had played right along, holding his hands a bit out with a grin, “usually you gotta get to know each other first, you know: stop some terrorists, save the city a few times, derail a couple trains, maybe escape an exploding one. Yuh know, all the usual stuff.”_

Oh had she laughed, and he’d clearly enjoyed causing her to. He never stopped. Not that she had really known him for that long, but in the short time she had he never stopped. In the very beginning it _had_ been extremely aggravating, but that was on day one and two, back when every joke and smarmy remark made at her expense had antagonistic intent. Now, the annoying thing about every _“funny”_ thing he said was the fact she couldn’t keep herself from laughing at him.

She opened the previously non-existent message chain.

“Carrots? I know you’re awake by now.” It read.

She lifted an amused eyebrow before typing back. “Oh really? You sure?”

“Well, unless this is one of your little stuffed bunnies typing on your phone.” The reply came.

Her eyebrow dropped back into place while her eyes widened. “I thought I told you to SHUT IT about those!” She messaged back.

“And I promised I would . . . yesterday.” Another reply appeared, with a _smirking fox_ emoji . . .

Judy took in a deep breath, throwing her head back and slamming her eyes shut out of aggravation. Why did there have to exist a smirking fox emoji of all things? She brought her head forward again as she let her breath out. “What do you want?” She finally typed back.

“I’m bored.” The next message read.

Judy looked half-way to incredulous, even party lifting a paw into the air. “Ok? Well you’re obviously awake, and I’m sure you have plenty of work to do.” She responded.

“Not really,” he typed back, “you talked me out of my daily job, remember?” 

“Actually”, Judy typed, letting a bit of a smirk start to take over, “I was kind of referring to all the studying you should be doing before your ZPD academy session starts. You only have nine days left.”

“Oh, Carrots, it almost sounds like you don’t trust me.” Another reply followed. “You know I’m a very responsible fox.” Judy paused her reading to let her eyes roll back in her head for a second. “I would never dream of slacking off on any important work, especially work assigned by my future superior officer.”

_Now_ Judy was getting annoyed . . . because she was being amused by the whole exchange.

Another message came from the fox before she’d begun typing a response. “Besides, don’t you think it would help if I had a, very knowledgeable, study buddy bunny?” 

“Oh?” Judy typed back. “Very knowledgeable? I thought I was a dumb bunny?”

“Well . . . that might’ve been the one thing you’ve proved me wrong about.” Came another reply.

“One thing?” She asked back, growing ever more amused.

“You don’t get to win that much that easily.” Nick messaged again. “Take what ya can get, Fluff.” Followed by another _smirking fox_ emoji.

_That_ thing needed to be destroyed.

“I know you won’t turn down a poor fox in need.” Another message came. “And besides, what are you even gonna do without me today anyway?”

. . . What was she going to do? She didn’t get to return to work until tomorrow.

Judy peered over at the pair of crutches leaning against the wall. Normally, on a day off she would have gone out jogging, shopping for what few groceries she needed and maybe continuing to just explore the city. At least that had been the norm, if she could even call it that, during her first week or so there. Then came _the press conference_. And in the few months that had followed, jogging for thrill and exercise had become jogging to empty out her mind of the stress and regret over what she’d caused, and exploring Zootopia had ceased. But, that was all over now that the nighthowler crisis had been stopped and normalcy would hopefully restore itself. Even though that was the case, she still couldn’t exactly go around running at the moment; the crutches leaning against the nearby wall spoke to that.

The rabbit’s ears flopped down, and she let her head fall back as far as it would go, until her eyes were staring at the far part of the ceiling. She gave a brief sigh before bringing her head back down with a small smile.

“Alright, _“sly fox”_ ,” she typed back, “you win.”

“Of course.” Nick’s reply came. “And don’t worry, I had a perfect place in mind. It’s how do you say, _“conducive to studying”_.”

Judy’s eyebrows went up again. “Like a district library?” She sent the question she already knew the answer to.

“Please.” Nick replied. “Come on Carrots, you can’t learn anything in a library. What kinda mammal even goes to a library anymore? _I_ , have a much better place in mind where we can sit down, and you can endow me with all the police knowledge you’ve got between those giant ears.”

Her eyes had to narrow at the final remark, but they only did so for a moment before amusement and curiosity took back over everything. “Oh really? Where?” She sent.

***

A couple hours later, the two of them were walking down a Savanna Central sidewalk to what Nick had referred to as an _undisclosed location_. He had refused to actually say where they were going, but had promised that, for Judy’s sake, it wasn’t too far. Now here they were, supposedly nearing wherever it was. And to her surprise, surprise which did leave her with a slight amount of guilt over doubting him, Nick had in fact shown up outside with his _“ZPD Procedural Manual”_ copy in-paw.

“One more block.” Nick suddenly promised as they came to another crossing light.

“Oh, darn,” Judy said, “and I thought you were just aimlessly making me walk around the entire city.”

“Maybe some other time, once I don’t have to go at half-speed just to let you keep up.” He mocked back.

She almost wanted whack his knee with one of her crutches . . . almost.

The crossing light went up and they made their way across to the other side of the intersection. 

“And, right up there.” Nick spoke, as they continued along the sidewalk.

As the last of the distance between them and their destination closed out, Judy finally saw exactly where they were going.

It was Jumbeaux’s Café, the ice cream shop from three months ago.

“Here?” She asked. “This is your idea of a place _conducive to studying_?”

“Aw, is our little bunny officer pre-judging things again?” Nick asked with a mocking smile.

Even though it was obviously made in jest, the remark did strike an equally obvious sour chord. And Nick seemed to realize it as well, even before Judy’s face fell.

“Trust me.” He said, keeping his own smile up. “A nice little sit down with ice cream is one of the best environments for being productive. Certainly a better one than you’ll be in at that office tomorrow filling out those . . . let’s see now; standard situation report, use of a concealed recording device form, vehicle commandeering report, type B since a subway train’s a city vehicle, destruction of city property during incident form, and I’d assume it depends on how Chief Buffalo Butt feels but maybe even a use-of-force report on kicking that one guy off the moving train.”

Judy found herself unexpectedly impressed as they arrived at Jumbeaux’s door. “Well look at you, slick.” She said, as he held open the door for her to hobble inside. “Someone did some skimming after they got their manuals and handbooks yesterday, I take it?”

“Skimmed?” Nick followed in after her. “Come on Carrots, you know I put in more effort than at. Light reading, let’s call it.”

“Encouraging to hear, let’s call it.” She responded with a smile. “Did you manage to find anything else in your _light reading_?” 

“Maaybe.” Nick teased things onward as the two of them instinctively fell in line with the other customers. “Looked up the specifics of how the speeding tickets are doled out, since Little Toot-Toot was always racking em up back in the early days.”

Judy couldn’t avoid giggling at least a little bit at the mention of Finnick’s hustling identity. “Really?” She eventually asked. “Care to share some that fresh, new wisdom?”

“You mean explain stuff to you that _you’re_ supposed to already know?” Nick asked in return. “Yeah, sure. I mean someone’s gotta re-educate you so you can survive the job on your own until I get instated.”

Judy’s eyes rolled just before the fox went on.

“Well, the magnificent city-state of Zootopia has different degrees of speed limit violations neatly arranged and categorized.” Nick carried on, speaking to the bunny with all the mock-officiality he could conjure up. “And while the designated ticketing fines may vary from any one district to another, all districts operate under the same three-band system. A-band speeding violations comprise speeds between five and fifteen miles per hour above the designated speed limit, B-band any speed between sixteen and thirty miles per hour above, and C-band offenses designate any speed greater than thirty miles per hour in excess of the speed limit.”

Judy waited for a second after he’d stopped, before opening her mouth to add on what she was assuming he’d missed. “And—”

“And,” Nick resumed instead, “any mammal committing a speeding violation in excess of thirty miles per hour above the speed limit is also potentially subject to a reckless endangerment charge at the responding officer’s discretion. Unless the C-band speeding violation is committing within a school zone, in which case a reckless endangerment charge is automatically applied.”

Judy kept a knowing grin on her face, while still letting her head tilt inquisitively to one side. “You know it sounds like you might’ve done a tiny bit more than just a little light reading.” She remarked.

Nick gave a light shrug at the bunny’s suspicion. She was partly right. While he hadn’t exactly started a thorough cover-to-cover readthrough when he went home yesterday, he had in fact done somewhat more than just skimming and light reading. What he had done was casually flip through, glancing over each page at every title and line of bold lettering until he stopped on something that was either of particular interest, or otherwise a subject he deemed _important enough_ for right then and there. Those he had stopped on he actually read through completely. As for the rest of it . . . well it wasn’t as if it would’ve been reasonable for any mammal to read through the entire ZPD Procedural Manual in a single night, and whatever he didn’t willingly peruse on his own time he knew, no, trusted his new best friend would hammer into his snark-filled skull in the short time they had before he actually went to the police academy.

“Can I _help_ you two?” The voice of a large elephant suddenly asked.

They both looked up to find the voice belonging to Jerry Jumbeaux, the ice cream shop’s owner and counter frontman. In the midst of their conversation it seemed they had unconsciously gone through the motions of following the customer line every time it moved forward, and now they had ended up at the front. Obviously given those particular circumstances, Judy had no idea what she wanted, or even if she wanted anything as she hadn’t exactly known this was where Nick intended for them to end up.

Nick, however, didn’t seem to have any uncertainty. “Hi, yeah, could I and, I’m sure you remember kind Officer Hopps here.” He held both paws in Judy’s direction, and judging by the elephant’s very reluctant lifting of his trunk to show he was wearing a trunk glove, he clearly remembered her. “Well,” Nick went on, “she and I just felt like coming by to enjoy some nice, refreshing ice cream on this sunny summer day. Two medium-mammal sundae cups please, a few scoops of Orange Sherbet each with just a little bit or maybe a scoop of that Mild-Green Melon flavor on top.”

The elephant behind the counter rolled his eyes back for a second before he responded. “Fifteen thirty-six.” 

Nick pulled a twenty from his pocket and handed it to the gloved trunk that was waiting for it. “Go ahead and keep the change for the tip jar, and make sure to start one if you don’t have one already.” He said, trailing a pointer finger and a _showman_ smile in the elephant’s direction as he stepped out of the way.

Judy’s head snapped between Nick and the elephant as the former was now stepping off to the side, leaving her with little choice but to follow.

“You know,” she spoke as she moved away from the line after him, “just because I can’t walk properly for a few days doesn’t mean I can’t order a cup of ice cream myself, or choose what kind of ice cream I want myself.”

Nick spun around to face the bunny as they reached the pick-up section of the service counter. “Oh I know,” he said, wearing something of an anticipating smile this time, as if he were awaiting some kind of upcoming amusement, “but yuh see when I remembered all the different kinds of flavors Jumbeaux’s place has, I just had this irresistible idea, and there was simply no way I wasn’t gonna run with it.”

The bunny’s ears parted a bit while her eyes narrowed, though her own smile did remain in place. “Really?” She asked. “And just what is this brilliant idea?”

“You’ll see.” He said.

She’d been certainly hoping for a bit more of an _actual_ explanation, but all she got after his two words was just that smarmy, expectant expression.

“Fine.” She said, letting her eyes return to normal and deciding to copy the smugness she saw in front of her. “Let’s go back to questions you _will_ answer then. Police ranks, name them!” She threw a pointer finger out towards him, dull bunny claw nearly impacting her friend’s loosely worn tie.

“Ha!” Nick was quite visibly amused, brushing the extended rabbit arm away. “Try something a refined, street-business mammal doesn’t already end up knowing on their own.” And then he began listing off ranks while counting up with the fingers of one paw, starting them over once he’d used all four. “You got: entry-level bunny,” he gave a single second’s pause just to enjoy the scowl Judy gave him, “officer, corporal, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, deputy, chief.”

“Actually the second to last one is _deputy chief_.” Judy corrected the otherwise on-point answer.

“Technicalities.” Nick shrugged it off.

“Medium-mammal sundae cups.” Jerry’s voice suddenly drew both of their attention.

The elephant lowered the first cup over the counter with his trunk down to their level, where Nick took both it and the second that Jerry lowered to them immediately thereafter.

Judy looked at the ice cream arrangement stacking up out of each sundae cup as she walked with Nick over to one of the smaller nearby tables. They were both the same: several scoops of Orange Sherbet stacked up and topped by a single scoop of Mild-Green Melon. It really bugged her for the short few steps they had to walk. She knew there was something obvious that wasn’t clicking in her head right at that second.

Nick had to reach up and slide their ice cream cups onto the table, as the smallest tables in Jumbeaux’s still stood at the fox’s eye level, and above the bunny’s head. They both literally had to hop up into the seats, in Judy’s case it being a one-legged hop up. She wasn’t capable of gaining anywhere near as much height jumping off of one leg than she normally could with both, but it was just enough. She ended up looking to find Nick had doubled back to help lift her as he’d been doing with nearly every flight of stairs, but she’d apparently managed to jump up herself just in time.

She propped up a smug victory smirk in his direction, and he simply held his paws up in a mock surrender for a second before climbing back up into his own seat across from her.

“Alright,” she asked once they were both seated, “are you going to actually explain this now?” She ended with a thumb pointing over to one of the identical ice cream helpings.

“Come on, you haven’t gotten it already?” He asked back, waving a spoon up and down beside his own ice cream serving. “A bunch of orange, with green on top? Ah?” His tone was reminiscent of when he told that stupid joke at the DMV, which, led Judy to believe this had to be just as dumb.

She looked at her own stack of orange-colored ice cream again, with a single scoop of green on top. The small tower, if it could be called as much, looked like an awkward ice cream . . . carrot . . . 

After the realization struck Judy, her face struck the table.

“Why?” She had to ask, after a groan.

There was no laughing or snickering coming from the fox, but the bunny could FEEL the overwhelming grin her friend was now wearing, all too pleased with himself.

“Just to get the reaction, Carrots.” He answered. “Always worth it every time.” He even tapped her head twice with an unused ice cream spoon.

With her face still planted on the table, she blindly swatted around at the space above her head, though she eventually realized Nick had already withdrawn. She eventually picked her head back up to find him staring back with the exact expression she knew was waiting.

“Starting to regret that police partner request yet?” He asked, more satisfied with himself than she had ever seen him.

“Are you _trying_ to make me?” She asked back.

“Maybe.” He answered, finally taking his first spoonful of ice cream. 

“Ugh.” She let her head slump back for a moment, long enough for an inescapable smile to eventually find its way back to her face. “ _I suppose_ , I might be able to put up with you” she said, bringing her head forward again and taking a spoonful of her own serving, “as long as you never change.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, the police ranks and order are real US police ranks irl. The speeding system is also how most places typically run it.
> 
> Also I have a Patreon for anyone who wants to support things - https://www.patreon.com/Skasis  
> also also if you want to listen to episodes of my energy & mining podcast just search "Maxojir" on youtube.


	6. Back to Work

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because the best LG ship had to show up eventually

Judy hobbled into the ZPD lobby, still on crutches, but now finally back in-uniform. The day after tomorrow was finally today, so it was now her first day back on the job. Granted, at the moment _“on the job”_ meant working without pay and confined to desk work inside the ZPD Precinct One building, but it was still enough of a thrill for the little grey embodiment of optimism. While most mammals would normally love receiving days off, the two day wait to return after her and Nick’s meeting with Bogo earlier in the week had been agonizing. But, she was finally here now.

The previous afternoon, after their ice cream excursion, Judy had managed to convince Nick she could safely traverse stairs on her own. After they’d walked back to her apartment she’d entered on her own while he waited outside, waiting for her to eventually appear in her third floor window to prove she had in fact crutched her way up the stairs alive. Given she’d _managed_ to prove herself capable, he’d willingly agreed to let her make her own way to work. Granted, she also still didn’t suspect being up and ready at five-thirty in the morning was really his thing, despite his proving himself capable of appearing by seven-thirty the other day. No, the real early rising would be knocked into him by his upcoming time at the academy.

As she made her way across the lobby, Judy noticed that unlike on Monday, there actually was someone seated behind the front desk. It wasn’t Clawhauser, as she remembered he said he couldn’t return to the position until Friday, once the position down in records could actually be filled full-time again. But, there was at least someone there for the moment; seeing the reception desk of the ZPD’s main building empty the other day had felt quite out-of-place.

Apart from the mammal behind the desk though, the lobby was unusually close to empty. There were a few officers standing and talking in a place or two, however she noticed that none of them were Precinct One officers.

“Officer Hopps?” A voice suddenly called Judy.

It was the officer behind the desk. She was a Hyena, a spotted one with grey fur just on that color’s blurring boundary with the duller shades of violet. She both looked and sounded pleasant to Judy’s perception.

“Yes!” Judy said back with her own usual, pleasant demeanor as she made her way up to the desk. “I’m Officer Hopps.”

“Madoa Outlander.” The Hyena introduced herself, speaking with an Outback Island accent. “I’m the desk officer for Precinct Two. Bogo has me covering here for Clawhauser for the next couple days. He said for you to head to the morning meeting, he needs all Precinct One officers present this morning.” She told Judy.

“Yeah,” Judy remarked, glancing around the lobby again, “I kinda figured.”

“Oh,” Madoa spoke again, retrieving a set of forms and stapled packets of papers from one of the trays under the desk, “he also said to make sure you got these.”

The Hyena had to lean over the desk to lower the collection of forms and report papers to Judy, who then herself had to tuck them tightly between one arm and the crutch she had under it.

“Thanks.” Judy said once she had the papers secured. 

“Get back on both feet soon.” Madoa wished Judy well as she began to hobble off towards the morning meeting.

“I’ve only got two days left on these.” Judy happily called back before moving on.

A moment later, true to expectation, Judy found the bull pen rather overcrowded. What was normally a morning assembly of twenty or so officers was instead somewhere closer to forty. The room itself was only intended for roughly twenty-five at most, assuming said officers were mammals of varying sizes. 

The front row seat Judy had usually taken was blocked from her view as she entered, but she had enough of a suspicion that it was already occupied given every other seat she _could_ see was. More than a pawful of officers were either standing or leaning against some area of the walls. And, nearly half of the officers in the room were either in their regular clothing, or both in regular clothing _and_ looking like they were about to pass back out. It was decently clear they’d all been called in despite being later-day or night shifters. 

Judy continued hobbling up towards the front of the room, eventually arriving at the front row. When she turned to enter the space between the first and second table rows, she found her seat was indeed already occupied. It was taken by Corporal Grizzoli, the white wolf officer, and the same who had snuck her and Nick past the press crowd back on Monday. Regardless of rank, Bogo had usually just referred to everyone under a general _“officers”_ umbrella, or even more commonly just called everyone out by their last name. Daily acknowledgement of rank was more meant for anyone beneath any given officer’s rank as recognition of anyone in a superior position of authority.

Before Judy could either say anything or choose not to, Grizzoli turned his head and looked down to notice the crutch-wielding rabbit. Without an actual word, or really any change of expression, the white-coated wolf removed himself from the chair and stood beside it instead. 

Judy froze for a second, but she managed to shake off the surprise that always came from something unexpected and move up to the chair. Leaning her crutches against the side of the seat, she went to slide the assortment of forms and papers she had with her up onto it before hopping up herself. She realized though that in her upcoming attempt to hop up, when she grabbed ahold of the paper-covered surface of the seat she would likely end up slipping off with a decent number of the sheets. 

With her set of forms still upheld in her hand, Judy started to ask. “Um, Corporal Grizzoli—”

The wolf had looked down at her again when the first word left her mouth, and by the time the third word had left a second later, he already reached a paw down to take the collection of papers from her.

“Thanks.” Judy said, and then carefully climbed up into the seat, taking extra care not to kick her injured leg around.

As she situated herself in the seat, Grizzoli’s arm appeared in front of her, placing her forms down on the table. And when she turned her head to thank him again, she found him already holding out a pen for her to take.

“Oh,” she was at least a little bit surprised as she took the pen, “thanks.” 

Once Judy had taken the pen, Grizzoli wordlessly resumed facing forward, now standing loosely at attention instead of sitting. She didn’t know him that well. Not that she really knew the others any better. Even though she’d been on the force for a little over three months, only the first week of that had been in what she guessed could be called regular conditions. _The press conference_ she gave after finding all of the original missing mammals had done a more than fair job of alienating her from her coworkers for the months that followed. In the aftermath now of Bellwether’s arrest and the entire truth behind everything being finally uncovered, she hoped she might be able to undo at least some degree of that.

“You didn’t have to give up the seat.” She felt compelled to say.

“Strong help the weak.” The wolf answered, with nothing in his voice really going either way. 

Judy had heard him talking with others numerous times before, and that toneless voice wasn’t at all what was normal for him. So, she knew it had to be because it was her he was speaking to. Well . . . she couldn’t exactly blame him. Under any prior circumstances she would’ve have spent some time wondering whether he was referring to her injured leg, or her being a bunny when he said _“weak”_. But now . . . now she was consciously going to live out the lesson she hoped she had learned and assume the better of the two possibilities.

“The leg, not the species.” Grizzoli suddenly said, as if responding to Judy’s thoughts. In reality though, the semi-nervous glance he gave revealed he was second-guessing his prior words.

“It’s fine, don’t worry.” Judy insisted. “I assumed that’s what you meant.” She turned back to the various forms on the table in front of her, which immediately brought her attention back to the pen in her paw. “Are you sure you don’t need this?” She asked the wolf.

Grizzoli shook his head in response, and with no more words coming from the wolf, Judy looked forward herself.

Captain Higgins stood at the front of the room, silently looking over everyone, marking them off present on a noticeably extended roll-call sheet. It was one of the usual duties of each Precinct Captain, being the start of their very lengthy workdays, whereas the evening meeting roll was usually handled by a Lieutenant. Apart from that, she knew each Precinct Captain was assigned a particular category of work for the whole department. Captain Higgins handled all scheduling for the ZPD, she had already known. And now after her and Nick’s meeting with Chief Bogo on Monday, she knew Captain Vitani from Precinct Two handled all rank promotion applications and reviews. Not that Judy had really _met_ any of the other precinct officers. Everything had become too hectic and taxing in the aftermath of what her words had caused for the last three months, and even outside of work, she hadn’t exactly felt like she would have belonged at any ZPD weekly or monthly social events.

Maybe once Nick was on she might. He probably wouldn’t be able to resist going to some, even if only for his own amusement rather than socializing. But if he ended up going to things, she had an undeniable suspicion he would somehow rope her along as well. In the meantime . . . she could only try to spend his upcoming academy months seeing what personal damage she could undo herself.

Right then and there though, she forced her mind to refocus on all of the forms in front of her. Nick was right: a standard Incident Report, Vehicle Commandeering Report Class-B, Use of a Concealed Recording Device form, Destruction of City Property During a Police Incident report, and even a Use of Force report. However, there was one thing neither of them had anticipated, although Judy realized she should have. Also included with the various procedural reporting forms she had to fill out, there was a Recommendation for Applicant Approval form. It was a write-out form for listing a mammal’s merits and reasons why the officer filling it out thought the applicant in question should be accepted. 

Well, as genuine smile formed on her face, Judy knew which form she was going to complete first.

“Atteeeen-hut!” Captain Higgin’s call suddenly grabbed Judy’s attention.

The usual chanting and fist banging on tables began, but was abruptly cut off by Higgin’s rapid shaking of his head while motioning with a hoof across his throat. Judy saw what she assumed was the reason for the sudden silencing warning after the hippo retreated from the front of the room. Chief Bogo was not alone. As he entered the room the buffalo was followed by two other mammals; a younger pony, and an older german shepherd whose fur was starting to drift into grey on the top of his head. Both wore suits and while the younger appeared to be suppressing what might have otherwise been an outgoing smile, the older came off far more stoic.

“Higgins, is everyone here?” Bogo asked as he stepped behind the front podium.

The hippo nodded.

“Alright,” the Chief began, “we have an important, unavoidable matter to address this morning. As you’re all aware by this point, three of former Mayor Bellwether’s accomplices were fellow ZPD officers, two were your own colleagues here in Precinct One.” For once, though only for a few seconds, the Chief’s normal demeanor broke to allow some degree of regret to show through. “The involvement of officers in such a massive criminal affair mandates an internal affairs investigation by the Oversight Bureau. So, with me this morning are Bureau agents Gibbson Barks and Anthony DiNeighzo. They and their colleagues will be investigating everyone’s communication history to determine whether _anyone else_ ,” Bogo’s anger slipped out for two words, “was collaborating with Bellwether and her accomplices. Now, I’ll let them address you before we proceed.”

Bogo turned aside and extended a hoof in the two agents’ direction.

At the buffalo’s motioning, and after a look from the stone-faced shepherd, the suited pony stepped forward. “We’ve already served warrants to every major social media site to send us your histories. We’d like to remind you that,” the agent willfully stopped suppressing his smile for the delivery of the sentence, “anything you may _think_ you deleted isn’t really gone. Whatever site you sent it on saves everything permanently on their end in their own servers.”

“If anyone is connected with this,” the older shepherd added bluntly, “rest assured, we’ll find you.”

“As for us being here with all of you,” the pony said, “this is basically just a personal hardware raid.”

The german shepherd spoke one more time, in what his voice quite clearly conveyed was an order. “Phones. Everyone.”

The pony picked up a medium-sized plastic bin from beside the chief’s podium and brought it up to the other end of Judy’s table. “Our guys are already set up here to copy everything and scan for any erased data, so you’ll get’em back today, but in the meantime place one down and pass it around.” He said, holding the bin out in front Wolford and Fangmeyer.

The tiger and wolf both looked at each other, the latter with a half-amused grin and the former rolling her eyes. Both of them dug into their pockets and retrieved their phones, placing them down in agent DiNeighzo’s bin. 

Once those two had given theirs, the suited pony went about walking along the length of every table collecting phones from every officer, even the exhausted night shifters and the annoyed ones who were supposed to be off-duty. Judy handed over hers when the time came as well.

She didn’t allow herself to hold any doubts about her other colleagues, but she at least knew the only thing they were going to find on her phone was a daily parade of texts and attempted calls from her parents.

“Alright.” The younger agent said upon returning to the front of the room, having collected every mammal’s phone. “Let me remind everyone not to worry, this will all be handled with the utmost of professionalism. Everybody’s privacy will be respected, no embarrassing secrets will be shared.”

A few laughs came out of those who were the most awake, along with the mocking line.

“ _Privacy_ in Law Enforcement?”

With that, the older shepherd gave Bogo a single look, at which he stepped back to the podium again and the two bureau agents departed.

“Right,” Chief Bogo resumed speaking, “everyone’s phones as they’re done being ran through will be left with Officer Madoa at the front desk for you to retrieve them. They’re not being dealt with in any particular order, but our friends have assured me they will be finished with everything by this afternoon. You can collect yours then. _Now_ —”

Judy didn’t necessarily tune the rest out, but she did gradually let more of her focus slip back onto the forms she needed to complete. In particular, Nick’s recommendation. Since she wasn’t exactly going to be assigned to anything other than what was in front of her, she didn’t really need to listen for her name. Her ears did alert her when it was called, but Chief Bogo merely told her to carry on with what she was doing, as she already knew he would.

So, the little rabbit began to write. 

She thought quite intently of just how to sound everything out, how to really describe what Nick had done. The truth, mind you, but in a way that shined light on what it truly was . . . who Nick truly was.

And so, bits and pieces glimpsed themselves here and there as it was put together.

_“—while under no legal obligation nor officer’s order to aid in—”_

_“—at risk to his own life or bodily harm, repeatedly sought to—”_

_“—of quick thinking and deductive thought provided for—”_

_“—refused to abandon—”_

After some time she was finished, leaving little room left in the write-out segment provided. It took only a mere few minutes afterward to put down Nick’s information in the Applicant-in-Question section. With what she deemed the most important form out of the way, Judy finally began on all of the necessary reports and forms pertaining to her and Nick’s nighthowler-ending _adventure_.

***

While time may not have exactly passed quickly, remaining definitively focused on the detail-oriented work in front of her kept Judy from paying any mind to the clock in the room. The absence of her phone may have also helped in some part as well, as she would’ve otherwise seen the time on occasion whenever she would have checked to respond to any of her parents’ inevitable daily texts. Instead, time passed outside of her attention, but it did seem to fall in line with her. When she had finally completed everything, she stretched up her arms and twisted her back each way. And in the process of one of those turns, caught the time on the wall clock: four o five in the afternoon. 

She decided, like a smart mammal, that she was going to check back through everything and look over what she’d written. It would certainly fill a better portion of her remaining on-shift time, and was obviously just a wise thing to do anyways. It ended up consuming a fair bit of her remaining hour, bringing the time to four forty-five when she finally began to hobble her way out of the room with the now-completed forms under one arm.

The lobby actually resembled its normal self when she emerged into it again, at least in regard to the number of mammals and officers scattered about in various groups and locations. She added herself to the count as she made her way across the floor, heading for the front desk.

Madoa was still the officer seated there, as she would be until Friday. However, as of the moment she wasn’t alone. There were two other hyena officers standing on the outside of the desk: a plainer grey male with yellow eyes, and female similar in color to Madoa, and with a set of Sergeant stripes on her sleeve. And, there was also a smaller animal with them, a fox holding up his phone to allow the male hyena to look and laugh at something.

“Nick?” Judy spoke her friend’s name as she realized it was him.

Everyone at the desk turned their attention to her.

“Good afternoon Officer Hopps.” Madoa greeted her as she came up to the front of the desk.

“Officer Carrot Patch.” Nick didn’t even hesitate to start being himself.

“Future Officer Dumb Jokes.” Judy shot back just before holding her collection of forms up toward Madoa. “These are all ready for Chief Bogo.” She said.

The hyena behind the desk reached down and took the set of papers from her. “I’ll make sure they get to him when he comes down for the evening meeting.” She promised Judy.

“The city-saving Officer Hopps?” The other female hyena asked, rhetorically, or so the knowing smile she had implied.

Judy’s own smile turned into a nervous one at the recognition, cringing inside not knowing exactly what kind of attitude to expect this time. Regardless, she managed to push the dread of uncertainty aside and salute, reading the superior officers name badge. “Sergeant Greylaugh.” She addressed her superior.

“Jasiri.” The Sergeant told her. 

It wasn’t the first time Judy had another insist on placing their first name after their rank instead of their last. It was mostly just down to preference, though for the most part it was also only acceptable between officers and each other.

“HA! Ha hahaha hehehe ha!” A blatant hyena laugh suddenly broke from the male officer behind her.

They all looked over to find Nick showing him something new on his phone, with the fox smirking at the evident degree of obnoxious amusement he had provided.

Sergeant Jasiri rolled her eyes, with what had to be read as a lovingly amused smile.

Madoa pointed over at the male officer while she told Judy. “The clutzy clueless laugh box over there is her husband, Janja.”

“ _Officer_ Greylaugh,” Jasiri grabbed her husband’s attention, “it’s time for us to go.”

“Huh? Oh yeye yeah, I’m comin!” He responded, immediately coming over to her side. 

“We’ll see you at home.” The Sergeant said to her sister behind desk.

As she and her husband started to walk away, he suddenly spun around to face Nick. “Hey, don’t worry,” he told the fox, “I’m sure you’ll get in. I mean, they let me in. And I don’t exactly got . . .” the hyena’s yellow eyes drifted away as nearly tangible guilt crawled across his face, “. . . the greatest past.”

“You don’t say?” His wife teased.

Though at first he grimaced, once the male hyena actually looked to see his wife staring at him with the same sincere-hearted expression she’d been wearing, the grimace eventually slipped away to be replaced with a nervous smile.

“Come on.” She said. And they resumed walking away.

With them now gone, Judy finally looked over at the ever-casual fox standing a few steps away. “So,” she asked, “what exactly were you doing here?”

“Showing some hilarious memes to a new friend.” Nick gave the more smug of the multiple possible answers.

“Uh-huh.” Judy was mildly amused, but not amused _enough_. 

Nick spoke up again though, before Judy could ask the more specific question she intended. “If you mean what am I doing _here_ right as you’re about to get off shift, well that question has a very simple answer, Carrots.” He said, slouching down to near her eye level. “I was bored.”

Judy had to let all the air sigh out of her lungs as her head rolled back. She drew some back in as her head dropped back to its normal position again. “Of course you were.” She said.

“Hey,” Nick responded, smarmy as ever, “I’ll admit I forgot how boring it was to have a friend who has to go to an actual job.”

“Pretty soon _you’re_ going to have to go to an _actual job_.” She smugly reminded him.

“Why yes, Carrots, yes I am.” He said back. “But that day is not today. And before you even ask, yes, I spent plenty of time doing exactly what you’re going to ask if I did. In fact, you should be proud of yourself. No one and nothing has gotten me to do that much reading since _highschool_.”

Judy would’ve crossed her arms, if she were able, but it would’ve likely resulted in both crutches falling to the floor. “Really?” She asked. “I suppose you’re willing to provide evidence, again?”

“Absolutely.” Nick said. “Let’s head off and do something fun and I’ll prove it to you on the way.” He offered.

Judy narrowed her eyes, though the counter-smirk she’d been displaying didn’t exactly leave. 

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Nick rather confidently assumed.

“That’s a bold assumption to keep making.” She told him.

“But it’s the _correct_ assumption.” He simply repeated, knowing he was right.

Her eyes rolled about before she mock-begrudgingly gave him the answer he was seeking. “Why yes, Mr astute fox, yes it is.”

The victory smarm levels on the fox’s face might’ve been unbearable had this been during the first two days they had met, but thankfully Judy had _just_ enough of a threshold for it now.

“I’ll head outside.” Nick said, strolling away.

She was going to _start_ getting back at him, one of these days.

“Bearably unbearable?” Officer Madoa’s voice suddenly caught the rabbit’s ears again.

Judy turned to see the hyena behind the desk looking down at her, more than visibly amused at everything. “Something like that.” Judy answered her.

The hyena giggled, and then reached beneath the desk for something. “Well, make sure you don’t leave without this.” She said, pulling out Judy’s phone and leaning over the desk to offer it to her.

“Oh, thanks!” Judy said, reaching up to take it, “I actually kind of forgot about it.”

“Glad you had a reason to pass by then.” Madoa said. “Now don’t keep Mr Astute Fox waiting.” She couldn’t help but end up in giggles upon the sentence’s completion.

Judy’s eyes rolled again as she followed in the fox’s wake and started heading for the main door.

“Oh!” The desk officer suddenly called after Judy had made it about a third of the way. “If you two need fun stuff to do, the bowling alley us and Final Alliance go to on Thursdays, they have Couple’s Night on Saturday!”

Judy’s ears all but slammed down against the back of her head, and her face scrunched up for a second until she took in a deep breath. What was with everyone jumping straight to that?

“He’s not my boyfriend.” She called back to her, as politely as she could.


	7. Back to Normal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, those were two of the scenes from the end of the movie incorporated in. OSO stands for Olfactory Sensory Overload. Yes, there are actually two-shot taser guns IRL now, that you can fire once and have it tasing someone while you then fire the second barb set into a second person. I gave the ZPD a semi-hybrid model between US and EU police, in that they prefer to default to non-lethal weapons, HOWEVER, it would be much easier for them to gain control of a situation with them because animals’ senses, especially in many cases their smell and hearing, are FAR more sensitive than ours, more than you can imagine. It would be MUCH easier to incapacitate them via direct 1v1 “sensory overload”, i.e. a strong enough spray of specific chemical design sprayed at their nose would be about as all-debilitating as a flashbang / stun grenade is to humans, whereas with us humans, criminals have kept fighting and resisting just fine all the time even when maced or pepper sprayed. With us, to have absolute incapacitation, you need to actually use a flashbang, but flashbangs aren’t direct 1v1 weapons like guns or our ineffective sprays are, they’re area-of-effect weapons that would blind and deafen the officers as well, plus any nearby civilians. BUT, Zootopia is a nice Disney universe where the sentient beings have much easier routes of non-lethal incapacitation. Thanks for reading. You’re all awesome.

Another two days passed, and Wednesday became Friday, the day Judy could finally walk on both legs again. Even though her time on crutches hadn’t even been an entire week, it was still too long for someone as inherently hyperactive as a bunny. But, her time of having to avoid the use of that leg was over. She wasn’t dumb, no matter how many times Nick tried to keep the joke running, so she was careful when she first started to place weight on after she got out of bed. There was some residual pain just under the skin along the length of the cut that came back to life when she started walking on it, but it was very faint and closer to an itch or a nuisance than anything else. It was absolutely not enough to impede her of all mammals.

It was going to be her third day back at work, granted the first had just been filling out all of the necessary nighthowler paperwork, and the second had been setting up her cubicle in the main office room now that she was finally being given one. It was also now six days left until Nick’s academy session began, for which he had actually been preparing more than she would’ve initially expected. And, most importantly, it was hopefully the day she would be able to ask Mr. Otterton about hiring Finnick. 

Judy had been there the evening before when he had finally awoken. After hearing the news during the day that the nighthowler-afflicted mammals were beginning to come back around, she’d gone to the hospital after work. It was more to check on Mrs. Otterton than it was to hope her husband was awake. She he had gone to check on and comfort the otter a couple of times over the three months since the original case, mostly driven by guilt in feeling that she’d failed to bring her husband back like she’d promised her she would. But, whether chance or miracle, about twenty minutes after Judy had shown up, just she and Mrs. Otterton had finished talking, her husband had finally regained consciousness. She’d left them alone, as she wasn’t about to interrupt a moment of reunion, let alone go asking him anything that immediately after he’d awoken. But while Judy had been on her way out of the hospital to head home, Mrs. Otterton had come hurrying by her, wanting to race home herself to bring her two children to finally see their dad again. She had stopped for an instant to thank Judy again, even hugging her. It was then at which Judy had asked if it would be ok if she asked Mr. Otterton something tomorrow; that tomorrow now being today. Mrs. Otterton told her that of course she could, somewhat to Judy’s surprise. So, after work today she was going to ask about Finnick. 

She _was_ going to make the world a better place, even if it was only making it better for a single mammal.

Thought’s cleared away back into reality as her morning subway ride came to a halt. She exited the train once the doors opened and went straight up the stairs to the surface. 

Emerging out into the city’s central plaza, Judy stepped into what somehow already felt like a brighter world. The light of the early morning sun itself even looked more golden. The plaza park actually looked filled with the same plethora of mammals it used to be, before everything began. And . . . they weren’t keeping to the divide anymore. In more places than one, her eyes caught prey and predator speaking or walking together. Had things somehow come back to this kind of public peace since only yesterday? Or had things been gradually edging back towards normal in the near-week since they stopped Bellwether, and somehow it all only just now passed enough of a threshold to make her notice?

Ultimately, she supposed it didn’t really matter, and she found an inescapable smile spreading over her face either way. She even saw two children, a tiger cub and a deer fawn kicking a soccer ball across the grass together. Almost immediately after spotting them, they both maneuvered for the ball at once, and accidentally sent flying far out ahead of them. Of all places and all possible directions, it came rolling right up to Judy’s feet. With a smile to the kids, Judy lightly kicked it up, bouncing it from foot to foot for a couple seconds before spinning around and sending it off again for them to chase after.

Were things really going back to normal? Maybe, she wondered, it had been almost narcissistic to think the damage she was in fair part responsible for would actually be lasting.

When she entered through the rotating doors of the ZPD lobby, she found an equally uplifting delight inside. There behind the front desk, placing his Zootopia snow globe and his nameplate back onto the front edge of the desk counter, was Clawhauser. The same smile that had taken Judy’s face over outside returned again in even greater strength, even enough to expose some part of her front rabbit teeth. Before Clawhauser could even sit down, and before Judy had even taken more than five steps toward him, Captain Higgins and Lieutenant McHorn stepped up to the desk from the side. Each of them presented an open box of donuts, and both wore warming smiles that would’ve been found beside the definition of _“welcome back.”_ The cheetah’s paws balled up and flew up beside his chin, just beneath his giddy grin.

For all that she was worth, Judy was overwhelmed, overwhelmed in the best possible way she imagined a mammal could ever be.

She’d thought she’d ruined the world . . . but she was wrong.

She was so wrong, and she couldn’t be happier for it.

Whilst Clawhauser was still trying to make his first donut choice and the Captain and Lieutenant were walking away towards the morning meeting, Judy covered the remaining distance between her and the reception desk. 

“Clawhauser!” She spoke the chubby officer’s name with glee.

He had just popped the first donut into his mouth, and from the lack of chewing she _thought_ she observed, he immediately swallowed it whole just to respond to her.

“Officer Hopps!” He said back, just as excited. “Can you believe it?” He asked, pointing one open paw at each of the two items he’d placed on the desk counter. “It’s finally Friday!”

“Yeah,” she said, still holding onto her smile, “glad to finally see everything I did getting undone.”

Clawhauser looked confused by her words at first, and only seemed to have everything click in his head after a couple of seconds. His eyes shot all the way open and both of his paws went to cover his mouth. “What? Nononono no! Nothing was your—” 

It was both the loss of Judy’s smile and the parting of her ears as they began to fall that brought the cheetah’s initial set of words to a stop.

“It wasn’t that bad.” Clawhauser said of the records office. “Oh, and I wasn’t always alone! The twins came down to visit a lot, and Francine, and Grizzoli, and Wolfmeyer too.” He tried to reassure his small friend.

“Wolfmeyer?” Judy was compelled to ask, despite the guilt.

“Oh! That’s what I call Wolford and Fangmeyer. You know, like a ship name!” He told her, even making a heart sign with his paws.

Corporal Grizzoli’s voice suddenly reached both of their ears as well. “You know it’s not a ship anymore if two mammals are actually together?” He more stated than asked, giving Clawhauser a partly-amused look, and then Judy a much more reserved glance.

“But ship names are soooo cuute!” Clawhauser insisted, even as the wolf kept walking away toward the bull pen doors.

Judy sighed after he was gone, her eyes even shutting for a second.

“Donut?” Clawhauser offered, holding one of the boxes down toward her level. “You look kinda down.”

“Thanks, but it’s alright.” She answered. “I guess I’m just glad at least you don’t hate me.”

Total surprise overcame the cheetah’s face upon hearing the bunny’s words, and his claws even released the donut they held to fall back into its box. “ _What_? Oh no no no, nobody hates you, Officer Hopps!” He insisted. “I mean of course _I_ could never hate you. But if you mean Grizzoli, he doesn’t hate you either. He just, kind of . . .” Clawhauser paused for a second, trying to search for the right words as quickly as he could, “he’s actually just kind of really sensitive.”

_That_ did come as a surprise. “Really?” Judy asked.

“He might’ve just taken all . . .” Clawhauser froze for a second again, hesitating he before finished his sentence, “you know, the things from the press conference a bit more, um, personally? Not personally like _from_ you against him specifically, but . . . uh, he’s the kind of mammal who if you say really bad things about him, he kind of gets really down inside and starts to think they’re true.”

Now, she supposed, it made a bit a more sense.

“Not that you meant anything specifically towards him.” Clawhauser went on. “I mean I know it was like a blanket statement about . . .” He stopped himself, beginning to cringe at what he had been in the process of reminding her about.

“It’s ok.” She promised. “I know.”

“Are you sure you don’t want a donut?” Clawhauser grabbed a box to offer again, trying to remove them both from the uncomfortable air.

“No, I’m alright.” She promised again.

“What about a hug?” He put the box of donuts aside again. “Oh wait, Chief said I’m not supposed to hug anybody anymore cause I tend to,” he leaned over the edge of the desk to whisper to the bunny, “restrict their breathing.”

Well, _that_ Judy couldn’t avoid giggling at, because knowing Clawhauser, there was absolutely no way it wasn’t true.

“Thanks.” She said. “I think I’ll keep my lungs for now.”

He mumbled some form of goodbye to her through a full mouth as she turned to head to the morning meeting herself. But, after her first few steps, the implanted image of the chubby cheetah hug-crushing mammals gave Judy an insidious idea . . . for payback to a certain fox.

“Oh, you know,” she turned back around to say, “the next time he comes around, I know _someone_ who could probably use a hug.”

Upon entering through the doors to morning gathering of officers, one of the very first things she saw were _the twins_ Clawhauser had mentioned only minutes prior. The two lion officers of the Precinct One day shift: Neville Delgato, and his brother Robert, or Bob, _“Johnson”_. Chief Bogo had _assigned_ one of the twins a different surname for sake of differentiation, Judy had learned in the prior months. Everyone else just called him Bob, but the Chief and presumably any civilians who might know the lion called him Officer Johnson. The two of them were arm wrestling each other as Judy walked by, whilst being cheered on by a pawful of the others around them. 

Her usual front seat was unoccupied, as well as the one next to it. Wolford and Fangmeyer sat in their pair of seats on the other end of the table, where she had been used to seeing them. The seat next to hers was one that, in the three months she had seen, tended to change occupants almost daily. Today, however, at least for the moment, it had none.

Judy leapt up into the seat, using both legs to jump for the first time in nearly a week. It did bring a slight tinge of pain just beneath the surface of her leg’s healing gash, but it was well within the range of what she expected.

And then, almost the instant she had gotten up into her seat, her phone went off with a message alert.

To no surprise, it was a text from Nick. “You guys still made left-handed officers carry their firearm on their right side until just fifteen years ago?” The message read.

“Yeah,” she typed back, “it was kind of a dumb _“tradition”_ thing.”

Clearly a certain fox was looking at the Service Belt and Cruiser Equipment section of his study material.

Before receiving a response, Judy typed again. “Most of the time you have it in the special securement in either the cruiser door or the seat-divider panel.” She sent, and then attempted to keep going. “Unless you—”

A new message from Nick appeared before Judy could finish typing her third. “Unless responding to a violent call or a call with weapons advised.” Immediately followed by another. “Oops, did I beat you to it, Carrots?”

Judy backspaced her message away and rolled her eyes.

“Since I know you’d ask me to keep going anyways,” another message from the fox inevitably showed up, “no matter the call or situation, you always have your standard-issue AW-9 two-shot taser on your belt at all times, along with your O.S.O. spray. And, in the ever so cleverly named glove box, there’s a pawheld acoustic immobilization weapon for dealing with our mammals who put all their bets on their ears.”

“I’m so impressed.” She texted back. It was meant to be mocking, and she knew Nick knew it was meant to be mocking. But of course, he was going to flip it around on her somehow.

“I knew I could woo you eventually.” The message came, followed by the cringe-worthy _smirking fox_ emoji.

Judy’s face hit the table in front of her, while her paw still held her phone upright. WHY did she even give him the opportunity?

When she eventually picked her head back up off the table, she saw Captain Higgins was now taking roll up at the front of the room.

“Chief’s about to show up.” She messaged Nick. “Gotta silence you now.”

“Tell him I said hi.” A final message came quickly.

“I think I’ll stick with the _not_ option.” Judy sent her final reply before silencing her phone and returning it to her pocket.

Sure enough, Bogo arrived with minutes, taking the roll call sheet and clipboard from Higgins before the hippo sat down. After putting on his reading glasses, and silencing everyone, he checked over the list to make sure everyone was supposed to be was present. 

“Alright,” he began, “we have very few ongoing cases of major importance to deal with. Instead, we have the same collection of broad, ongoing problems. Protests and rallies have died out faster than we were hoping, but anti-predator and anti-prey sentiments are still lingering amongst the citizenry. Individual confrontations and incidents of unrest in public spaces of all kinds have been trending down since Bellwether’s arrest last weekend, but yesterday’s number of reported public altercations was still three times the pre-nighthowler average. Security personnel from private military firms have been contracted by the city government for some larger public areas in an attempt to temporarily reduce officer call load, along with by larger businesses with the means to afford it. However, most small and medium-sized businesses, as well as residential areas obviously can’t afford such a luxury. And with Pack Shield gone, the number of private security personnel available in the city has been significantly reduced. So, given the low number of serious cases on the docket, we’re assigning as many of you to standard street patrols as possible. You’ll be patrolling areas in the precinct with the highest remaining levels of citizen confrontations that lack a security presence.”

The Chief paused to flip over to the sheet of assignment listings.

The crack of joints in mid-stretch came from Wolford nearby. “Back to the old beats.” He said.

“Hopps.” Bogo called Judy’s name first, much to her surprise. “You’ll be riding along with Fangmeyer and Wolford for required field experience. East interior Savanna Central. You three are dismissed. Snarlov—”

Judy was even more surprised at the assignment, though she ultimately knew she shouldn’t be. She needed a minimum amount of field experience and eventual written approval by supervising officers to even qualify to apply for the rank promotion to regular Officer. And that promotion, she needed to get, if she wanted to be able to get Nick assigned to her as her partner after he graduated.

She stood up on the seat and saluted quickly before hopping down and looking over at Wolford and Sergeant Fangmeyer. The two looked at each other, seemingly amused, before Wolford motioned with his head for Judy to follow them, and they all walked out.

***

Judy hopped up from the pavement into the enormous passenger seat of the large-mammal patrol cruiser, as Wolford held the door open for her and Fangmeyer sat down in the driver’s seat on the other side. Judy looked at the Sergeant stripes on the female tiger’s sleeve as Wolford shut the door and hopped into the back. Rank insignias started with two stripes, for the rank of Corporal, just above Officer. Officers and entry-level Officers simply had the ZPD logo shield on their sleeves instead. Sergeants had three stripes, Lieutenants had a vertical silver bar, Captains had a pair of twin gold bars, and then once the Deputy Chief rank was reached, the indicator switched to a number of stars on the uniform collar. From what little Judy knew of them, while Fangmeyer was a Sergeant, Wolford had remained low because he didn’t really have any interest in positions of authority or higher organizational responsibilities outside of regular officer duties. According to Clawhauser, Wolford had only even gone for and made the promotion to Corporal because Fangmeyer had pestered him to constantly.

After Wolford shut the door behind himself in the back, he immediately laid down across the seat, lying on his back with his paws pillowing the back of his head.

“Finally, this is gonna be a nicer ride than usual.” He said.

Judy watched Fangmeyer’s eyes roll back in her head as the tiger twisted herself to look back over her shoulder.

“Upright. Seatbelt on.” The tiger ordered her boyfriend.

Wolford did obey her, but lackadaisically complained as he sat up and pulled the seatbelt down. “Come on, I’m still tired.”

“You’ve fallen asleep leaning against a wall before.” Fangmeyer answered, returning to a forward-facing position again. “I think you’ll be fine, _sweetheart_.”

As uncertain as she was in the present environment, Judy couldn’t avoid at least giggling at the pattern of interaction between the two superior officers.

“Careful with the laughing.” Wolford warned, popping part of his snout out between the top of the seats through the closable gap in the barrier officers could slide open to talk to detained suspects. “She’s gonna tell you not to encourage me.”

“ _Don’t_ , encourage him.” The tiger ordered Judy anyways as she started the car.

“Don’t worry.” Wolford promised. “I’ll be extra well-behaved today so we can set a good example.”

With a clear look of doubt regarding that promise, Fangmeyer pulled them out of the ZPD lot and began the drive to their assigned patrol sector. After a minute or so had passed in silence, Wolford’s snout emerged from the slot in the barrier again.

“So, we hear you’re trying to go for Officer promotion as early possible so you can get your boyfriend as your partner as he joins on?” The wolf asked.

The question, or rather _the manner_ of the question caught Judy just a little off guard. “Ah, actually, he’s not my boyfriend.” She answered. 

The wolf snout altered itself into a dis-believing smirk, and even the more stoic tiger in the driver seat snickered for a second.

“Well you got Mrs. No Laughs to snicker so I’d say I have some doubts about that.” Wolford responded.

Judy’s ears fell back, and the same face she found herself making at most of Nick’s jokes she found herself making then.

“You know Natalie used to say that too.” Wolford told her. 

“We _weren’t_ together when I said that.” Fangmeyer corrected him.

“You say _that_ now.” He said back.

“Get back on topic.” She ordered.

“Riiight,” he conceded, and then turned in Judy’s direction, “so you want to apply for an Officer promotion at the earliest possible date so you can get your _not boyfriend_ assigned as your partner?”

Judy threw the back of her head against the soft seatback, sighing briefly before she spoke again. “Why does everyone insist on running with this joke?” She asked.

“Because Clawhauser’s never wrong.” Fangmeyer answered through a mild sigh of her own. Granted, hers was clearly a sigh of admission.

Clawhauser? Of course, Judy realized, after remembering how he’d spoken about _Wolfmeyer_ earlier. Of course it would be him.

“We can change the subject if you want, Hopps.” Fangmeyer offered.

“Yes! Please! Thankyou.” Judy answered with immediate excitement.

Wolford looked over to Fangmeyer, who was actually able to look past her shoulder at him as they had just stopped at a traffic light. It was a glance of shared amusement, at first, but Fangmeyer made her eyes serious while she still had his. His own eyes widened a little bit, and his face became as serious as his partner’s. She gave an ever-so-slight nod, just before she turned her head back to facing the road in front of them. Wolford quietly let the air flood out from his lungs, and then took in a calming breath. He wanted to be absolutely sure he came of as placid as possible, even if he was already going to be half-joking it.

“So,” he started to say to Judy, doing his utmost to keep to a smile of some kind, “since you’re so eager to spend your workdays with a fox _not-boyfriend_ , I’m assuming you _don’t_ actually believe us predators are all primitive, savage, bloodthirsty timebombs waiting to victimize poor, helpless, innocent prey?” 

The extra padding of words the wolf had given his sentence allowed enough time for the fullness of what he was asking to strike the little rabbit at the same time his words were finished. Judy had only ever been, and looked so down-shocked once before, in the moment Nick had left her after the press incident. Her mouth was open, though not to say anything. Her eyes were huge, and her ears were falling . . . slowly falling, until they inevitably came down limp against the back of her head. She only then realized that she could have, should have never expected either of them to be so immediately ok with her. She struggled so hard for words, but right then, with how sudden it had been, there was nothing. When she couldn’t produce any sound, she resigned herself to just turn forward again, shutting her eyes hard. And she grabbed ahold of her ears, pulling down on them hard, one now across either side of her face.

“I think that’s a no.” Wolford decided, and did his best to make sure the smile had softened at least a little bit.

After another second, Judy let her ears go. They sprang back upright as she turned to her left again to look at both of them.

“I know I—” She just started to speak.

“It’s fine, Hopps.” Fangmeyer cut her off, not taking her eyes off of the road as they reached their assigned set of streets.

“Relax.” Wolford said immediately after her. “The whole sad country-girl face and ear-yanking thing was enough for us.” 

_That_ really wasn’t what she was expecting to hear. And consequently, it was also something she couldn’t immediately find words for. In some part, she might not have actually believed it, but the wolf’s face looked immeasurably genuine about it. Fangmeyer looked less readable, but the tiger was also clearly focused on both the road and their surroundings.

“I think she’s a bit surprised.” Wolford said to his partner.

The tiger spoke up, eyes never leaving the road. “You know you’ve already been handed plenty of evidence that not everybody is full of raging hate towards you, right?” She asked Judy.

Judy stared at her for a second, and then finally returned to a forward-facing seating position again. “. . . Yeah.” She eventually said. “I guess . . . it just doesn’t feel right for anyone to forgive me.”

Both the tiger and the wolf snicker-snorted.

“ _Complaining_ , about, forgiveness.” Fangmeyer spoke each word out with distinction.

“Hey,” Wolford responded, “Chief always warned us country mammals were really weird.”

They both giggled a bit more, and Judy . . . she realized she was smiling again, even if ever so slightly. Perhaps if she weren’t the particular subject, she might have actually giggled too.

Just then, the cruiser’s dispatch radio sounded off.

“Northeast Savannah Central units, eleven eighty-two at intersection of Serengeti and Drygrass, requesting nearest unit to respond.”

Well, that was them.

“Oh, darn,” Wolford said, turning his muzzled in the rabbit’s direction, “looks you might actually get to do something.”

“Ten four,” Fangmeyer answered into their end of the radio, “unit one nine en-route.”

Eleven eighty-two was the radio code for a traffic collision with no injuries. And true to its designation, that’s exactly what they found. The two drivers involved were visibly fine, although the same definitely couldn’t be said about the temperaments of all the other drivers that were having to ever so carefully cram and weave their way around them.

Two vehicles were there, one partially up on the sidewalk, both collectively blocking the right turning lane from Serengeti onto Drygrass. From what Judy could see as they stopped, granted she had to stand in the seat to see over the dashboard, it looked as if one of them had run the light at the last second and angle-smashed the other who was turning from one road onto the other. 

The three of them began to hop out, Fangmeyer immediately walking over two the drivers involved.

“Hey! HEY!” She seized their attention, bringing an abrupt end to the screaming match they had been having up until that point.

Before Judy got out, she lifted open the divider panel between the front seats, revealing the standard digital camera that every cruiser had. She took out both the camera and the USB link, meant to plug in to the dashboard transmitter so images could be sent directly to the department and the traffic court system as soon as they had been taken. She turned to hop out of the car, only to find Wolford standing right outside the open door.

“I was actually gonna get that out and hand it to you.” He said, looking happily surprised. “But if you’re already on it I’m gonna assume you know what to do.”

“Mhm,” she said, “yes sir.”

“Alright then, go ahead and prove yourself.” He told her, and then walked off to join Fangmeyer in dealing with the two angry drivers.

Judy did know exactly what to do, at least for what she had clearly just been assigned to do. Responding officers had to take pictures of the accident scene; one from each of what they called the eight primary angles circling around it, starting from zero degrees and going to forty-five, ninety and so on, along with as many possible different pictures of any points of impact. After which, they sent everything back to the department and the traffic court system, who would then send it to the drivers’ respective insurance agencies. And once the traffic court and insurance agencies concluded on who was at fault, one unhappy driver would find out they were the one paying the damage fees, and likely having their coverage rates go way up.

She took every shot just as she was supposed to, and returned to the cruiser to send everything she had taken over. Their time on-scene lasted a little over an hour, most of which after separating the drivers, was spent waiting for a mechanic to show up and check to confirm both vehicles could still safely drive away. The final thing they had to do after both cars left, was use the street debris equipment from the cruiser’s trunk to sweep off and collect any glass and sharp debris from the pavement before letting cars begin to use that lane again.

Beyond the call, and the portion of it she was asked to attend to, Judy’s mind afterwards was far more occupied by the elation over learning two more fellow officers _didn’t_ harbor some insurmountable resentment towards her. And for them in particular, it was better in more ways than one, since if those two were the ones she was going to be repeatedly assigned to ride with over the coming months, they would be the ones writing out her performance evaluation for Captain Vitani when Judy eventually did apply for the Officer rank promotion.

***

Judy knocked on a hospital room door.

“Yes?” The voice of a roughly middle-aged male answered from inside. “Go ahead and come in.”

She turned the lower door handle and pushed the door open. Inside the room, sitting up with his short otter legs hanging over the side of the hospital bed, was Mr. Otterton. He no longer had any equipment connected to him, and was simply sitting at the edge of the bed reading a Global Flora Monthly magazine. 

The otter looked up from his reading as Judy stepped into the room. He recognized her almost right away, or at least he assumed who she was.

“Officer Hopps?” He asked, just to be sure.

She nodded back.

“Olivia told me about you.” He said, with a mild-mammal’s warmhearted smile. “You’re the one who found all of us in that place, and stopped all of this.”

Judy’s own smile turned a bit more modest. “Well, I wasn’t alone.”

“Oh no I know.” He said. “Pawpsicle Nick was helping you too, right?”

She fought off the urge giggle at yet another _Nick_ name, and managed to just nod. “Oh yes, he was there.” She said.

“You know I never really imagined he was the _crusading hero_ type.” Otterton remarked. “He’s always kind of just been more the casual jokester whenever I’ve been around him.”

“Oh,” Judy responded, rolling her eyes once, “there were plenty of jokes along the way.”

“I should imagine.” Otterton agreed, and then appeared as if he had a sudden realization. “What exactly has you here?” He asked. “Did you need to ask me about everything that happened?” He even set his floral magazine down beside him.

“Oh no, no, don’t worry.” She assured him. “That’s all settled for now. Urgent questioning and interviews are mostly just for when suspects are still at large. I was actually coming to ask about something completely different.”

“Oh?” He appeared surprised.

“Yeah. You run your own florist business, right?” She asked.

“Why yes, though not right at the moment, unfortunately.” He answered. “As soon as I’d like it to be, I still won’t be running anything until I’m out of here and get the shop all reset. Olivia said I’ve been out for over three months. So if you were wanting flowers I’m afraid everything in the shop’s long gone and withered by now.”

“Oh, no it’s not about flowers.” She told him. “I actually wanted to ask about a friend. He’s looking for a job, and we were just kind of wondering if you were going to be hiring anybody, once you get of here, I mean.”

“Well,” he started to answer, dropping down from the hospital bed and walking over to the window, “Olivia already told me everybody’s gone. Can’t blame them, since it’s not like I was paying them for the last three months.” He reached his paws up to the windowsill that was just barely low enough for him to reach, examining the leaves of a small potted plant the hospital kept in each window. “He doesn’t have a problem with working with flowers, does he? I know some guys don’t like being seen working with the pretty and frilly.”

Finnick’s own words about not being opposed to money, and the vivid memories of the tough little thug fox walking around in a baby elephant suit aligned to form the proper answer. “Ahh, I’m pretty sure there’s not much he’s opposed to, other than not being paid.”

“No that won’t be a problem.” Otterton assured her, turning back away from the window plant. “I doubt I’ll be able to offer the full twenty right away though, at least not until I’ve gotten everything started back up again. So he’d have to be ok with only twelve or maybe fifteen at first, while we’re still setting everything up.”

“Dollars per hour?” Judy asked in true surprise.

Mr. Otterton nodded happily.

“Well, he’s used to only forty bucks a day, so I’m pretty sure even that temporary lower end’ll be more than ok.” She said. Even she hadn’t actually expected the normal amount Mr. Otterton paid to be twenty dollars an hour.

“We’re gonna spend a better part of the time cleaning out all the dead plants first.” Otterton said. “And then for few days I’m gonna have to be ordering new floral shipments and seed loads, so we’ll have to be unloading delivery vans. But after everything’s put back together, the work’s a lot less intense.”

The mention of deliveries, and vans, sparked a sudden idea in Judy’s mind. “He has his own van!” She said with hopeful excitement. “If you wanna skip out on the delivery expenses. If the places you order stuff from let you pick it up yourself.”

The sudden, brightened-eyes look on the little otter’s face gave away the answer to that question. “Really?” He responded. “Now that’s definitely not something I would’ve expected to hear. Sure, if I can avoid a hundred dollars on every supply order, I’ll gladly give your friend some of that instead.”

Now, after all the sinking moments and uncertainty throughout the day, Judy felt like her heart was filling up with helium.

“Course they’re not letting me go home till tomorrow.” Mr. Otterton said. “So just as long as you know I’m gonna want to stay home with Olivia and the kids for a few days before I finally get back into the shop to get everything started again.”

She nodded back immediately. “Don’t worry.” She promised. “He’ll be there whenever you start.”

“I’d say hopefully Tuesday or Wednesday. I can never really stay away from potted flora for long.” Otterton said with a smile.

And a matter of minutes later, as she was walking out of the hospital, Judy sent Nick one more message. 

“Tell Finnick he has a job.”


End file.
